Business Employment Matters

How to handle a bully
 

 

Along with all things to do with health and safety, workplace bullying seems to be a hot topic. WorkSafe NZ recently released guidelines on the topic to help both employers and employees respond to a bullying situation. Titled “Preventing and responding to workplace bullying”, the guidelines encourage and support people in taking early self-help action against workplace bullying before seeking assistance from WorkSafe NZ or the mediation service offered by the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment.

Keep in mind these are guidelines; the legal threshold for what constitutes bullying, indicated through case law, is still high. However, your employees may read the guidelines and consider that they are being bullied. So be prepared!

It’s important to recognise bullying behaviour. It not only impacts on the person being bullied but can also impact on the team of employees around the bullying behaviour. It can lead to loss of production and affect your ability to retain the employees you value most. 

 

The guidelines provide a definition adopted from Safe Work in Australia and their states’ regulation. It reads:

“Workplace bullying is repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or a group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety.”

Some further defining is required: for example, “repeated behaviour” is persistent and can involve a range of actions over time; “unreasonable behaviour” means actions that a reasonable person in the same circumstances would see as unreasonable. The behaviour includes victimising, humiliating, intimidating or threatening a person. 

What is also helpful is that the guidelines cover what bullying is not. Bullying is not a single incident of unreasonable behaviour (although it could escalate and so the “one-offs” should not be ignored if brought to your attention).

Bullying behaviour is set out in two main categories: attacks that are personal or “direct”; and attacks that are task-related or “indirect”. 

The guidelines’ examples of personal attacks include belittling remarks, ignoring or ridiculing and public humiliation. 

Task-related attacks include setting unachievable tasks, undervaluing contribution and changing goal posts or targets. 

The lists are long, but don’t let this intimidate you. The lists of examples should also be read in conjunction with the definition above – that is, the actions need to be repeated and unreasonable. The types of bullies you may encounter in the workplace are also outlined:

• The chronic bully, who possibly learnt to be a bully at a young age or has a personality disorder that lends towards bullying behaviour;

• The opportunistic bully, who is self-centred and bullies to get ahead, who targets a person who is a threat to their success;

• The situational bully, who might take advantage of a workplace situation to display bullying behaviours, for example by joining in with the pack or pairing up with a chronic bully to target another person.

 

Being able to recognise bullying behaviour will become a key skill when faced with an allegation of bullying. The lists in the guidelines can provide you with a good guide for determining if your employee is being subjected to bullying behaviour. 

Of course, not all allegations of bullying are well founded. If you find yourself responding to spurious claims of bullying, referring to WorkSafe NZ’s independent third party guidelines may help show that the allegations do not amount to bullying. A great example of when this may be useful is if an employee tries to deflect from a process they may be facing, such as performance management, by claiming they are being bullied. Once bullying has been ruled out, with reference to the WorkSafe NZ definition, you can identify the real issue and work towards addressing it appropriately.  

Will the guidelines be taken into account in a personal grievance?

Currently, legislation does not provide a definition. However, cases on the topic provide an indication as to what kinds of behaviour can amount to bullying. The Employment Court has used phrases such as behaviour that is “persistent, offensive” and actions that are “emotionally offensive, malicious, intimidating and humiliating” as indications that bullying has occurred. 

Similar phrases are used in the examples of bullying behaviour given in the guidelines, which does indicate that the thinking of the Court and the guidelines aligns. As stated above, the threshold for proving bullying remains high. Employees will still have to show that level of behaviour has occurred to prove bullying has taken place.

As always, if you’re unsure about a situation seek formal assistance.