Published on March 8, 2008 by Donna Seale
An interesting study has been released which shows that workplace personal harassment or "bullying" may be more harmful to employees than workplace sexual harassment. I haven’t discussed personal harassment much in this blog because bullying does not fall under human rights legislation unless it is connected to a protected characteristic (such as age, religion, etc.). But, the toll bullying takes on employees is something I have certainly experienced in the work I do.
The majority of workplace harassment investigations that I have been involved in over the past two years have been focused on non-human rights based bullying. And, during those investigations I have heard first-hand the devastating impact of bullying to complainant employees. In one case I dealt with, the bullying occurred between a male manager and a male employee. It took the employee three years before he formally complained about what he was enduring and he only complained when he did because he was close enough to retirement that he felt he had "nothing to lose." In the meantime, his health had suffered and the job that he loved had become a nightmare. While my investigation concluded that this employee had been bullied by his boss, the impact of the boss’ behaviour was far more pervasive. It turned out that this manager’s behaviour had also infected virtually every other employee. The workplace was tremendously poisoned and employees were leaving or planning to leave in droves.
The study puts a statistical face on workplace bullying. It illustrates why employers should be incorporating personal harassment into their workplace harassment policies and providing a means for employees to address what they are encountering.
See also:
Office bullying impact tops sex harassment, Winnipeg Free Press
Workplace harassment: the impact of the Manitoba Workplace, Safety and Health Regulation
Related posts:
Donna M. Seale B.A., LL. B.
Human Rights Lawyer
and Educator
