At HRtoolkit, we met a client with an employee who shouted and intimidated another team member. It was an obvious situation of bullying, but the stories about this guy were legend. Evidently, a colleague was so scared after one encounter, that he hid in the local police station to get away!
The problem our client faced, was that the intimidation had gone on for some time unreported, so the bully in question could have perceived that there was a level of acceptance of their behaviour. However, no-one is entitled to act this way in the workplace, and the principals of trust and good faith in an employment relationship apply to both employers and employees. Further to this, under our Health and Safety laws, everyone has a duty of care, to ensure that no action or inaction is harmful to another worker.
Using the HRtoolkit document library, our client invited their employee to a disciplinary meeting. As a result, he was given a written warning and put on a performance improvement plan. A condition of the warning was that the employee attended an employee assistance programme which involved personal coaching.
The employee was a big guy and had always used his size to bully and intimidate people. After coaching, there was such a huge turnaround in the his behaviour that within six months the employee was promoted.
HRtoolkit gave our client the confidence to stand up to a bully, helping them explain the impact of this behaviour on their team and business. It also gave them the courage to find a way to deal with the issue in a fair and reasonable manner. Our client lost at least four staff because they didn’t deal with this bully earlier, but with the help of HRtoolkit document library, they gained an effective and loyal employee.
At HRtoolkit we have everything you need to help manage those tough decisions. Let us show you how, click here.
Great article and result. My question is how do you deal with the reverse situation – where the Owner/Boss is the bully and staff are afraid of her/him and leave, resulting in high staff turnover?
Hi Malcolm,
Thanks for your question. It’s important for employees to understand how to deal with bullying behaviour in the workplace. And this is crucial if the bully is in a position of responsibility.
Worksafe has an excellent paper you can download which highlights what is and what is NOT bullying. We recommend all staff are informed and understand your company’s process to address any bullying concerns.
The principals of trust and good faith in an employment relationship apply to both employees and employers. Further to this, under our Health and Safety laws, everyone has a duty of care to ensure that no action (or inaction) is harmful to another worker.
Bullying behaviour that isn’t dealt with may get worse. Address the unreasonable behaviour as soon as you become aware of it. Try to address it informally at first, unless you feel your safety is at risk – if your safety or wellbeing is at risk, then you need to escalate your complaint straight away. It’s important to keep a record of your interactions. If you take the matter further you’ll need to describe the bullying behaviour, its instances, and how it affects you.
In your case Malcolm, where an employee is in a situation where they are being bullied by a senior staff member or a business owner, they should tell someone in the business who has supervisory capacity and alert them that something needs to be said to the owner. However if the business is a flat structure with employees all reporting into the business owner, you may need some independent support to resolve the situation.
You can phone Worksafe (the NZ crown entity for workplace health and safety) for support. You may also approach the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, for professional mediation to resolve the situation. For any mediation you need to be able to describe how the behaviour affects you, and its helpful to keep notes of when the incidents occur.
So what happens at mediation?
• A date for mediation will be agreed by both parties
• Both parties will arrive at the mediation and be put into separate rooms
• The mediator will brief both parties on the process and then bring them into the room together
• Both parties will state their case without interruption
• The mediator will ask some questions, and questions can be asked across the table
• Once discussions are no longer productive, the mediator will break both parties back into separate rooms
• The mediator will then go over the strengths, weaknesses and possible liabilities of each case
• The mediator will attempt to negotiate a settlement
• If no settlement is agreed then the parties go their separate ways
What does this mean in practice?
• Mediation will take approximately 4-6 hours (sometimes longer)
• A settlement doesn’t have to be reached at mediation
• The issue may be taken further by filing a personal grievance claim with the Employment Court
• The average award for an employee to win in Employment Court is three months pay plus $7,ooo for hurt and humiliation
Don’t be nervous when dealing with intimidation in the workplace. Just be fair, reasonable and courageous.
At HRtoolkit we have everything you need to help manage those courageous conversations. Let us show you how, call 0800 HRtoolkit (09 302 9935).