A GP and bullying expert tells Kieran Fagan that we are only treating the symptoms of workplace bullying and failing to confront the causes
Why bullying has emerged as a major workplace problem in the past 10 years is not exactly clear. Some observers believe aggressive results-driven management styles are to blame, others say that virtually full employment has made managers of people who are untrained for such responsibilities. Some suggest the decline in trade unions as a factor, still others say unions are better at protecting members who are bullies than those who are bullied.
What is not in contention is that staff absence caused by bullying is a cost to industry - estimated at up to 8 per cent of payroll costs. Nor is the increase in the problem. In 2003, the Health and Safety Authority reported a 100 per cent increase in inquiries to its anti-bullying unit.
What cannot be quantified is the unhappiness, waste of effort and loss of career development caused by workplace bullying. It has been likened to a cancer in a business. One set of cells sets about destroying another. The purpose of the business, to provide goods or services, is lost in a wasteful internal bloodletting which usually results in performing employees being driven out and the culprits remaining. There is no known means of reckoning such losses.
An expert group chaired by Paul Farrell of IBM Ireland meets for the first time this month to consider what measures are needed to address workplace bullying. It is due to report to the Minister for Labour Affairs, Mr Frank Fahey, in three months.
Dr Paul Heslin, a workplace coach, counsellor and a medical doctor, has a particular interest in finding innovative solutions to bullying. He cites the testimony of a person who found herself being drawn into bullying: The boss was bullying the new girl. To tell you the truth, she didn't have a lot of experience or confidence and she was always asking questions, and she was getting up people's noses. Then I caught myself I was bullying her too. I'm not like that, but I picked it up I know that's no excuse...
"In my experience, when the boss bullies, we all tend to follow suit," Heslin says. "Of course, we don't see it as bullying. It just comes into the workplace like an invisible mist. Before we know it, we are part of something we did not want or even agree to. We find ourselves sucked into being bullies. We call it the system. We call it normal.
"As a doctor, I see patients reporting migraine, headaches, insomnia, eating disorders and much more. Sometimes these symptoms are part of a larger picture - bullying. We are all only beginning to realise the real costs of bullying. Bullying at work and school causes a significant proportion of ill health and absence. We apply 'band-aids' to symptoms, ignoring destructive underlying patterns."
A bullied worker may be prescribed anti-depressants for his stress but if he feels pressured to return to work before work has created safety for him, work will remain a dangerous place for him. The bullying is causing the illness. The medication will not make the workplace safe. It is called his problem when, in fact, he is showing symptoms of a larger problem - toxic stress and bullying at work.
"We focus narrowly on the victim of bullying whom we see as weak for his inability to deal with stress. But this time, stress is neither reasonable nor healthy. The problem lies in the environment. We all have our breaking points. There are no exceptions to this rule. As doctors, if we are too busy to ask the question 'How is school/work going?', we may fail to make the connection between ill health and work environment," says Heslin.
He believes bullying is not being identified as bullying. We think of bullying as being caused by a person. He suggests that bullying can also be caused by an idea (doctors should never make mistakes), bullying by an organisation (financial institutions may push employees into abusing practices with customers) and bullying by unreasonable expectations (we will halve the workforce and do the same work). We can even bully ourselves after we internalise the bullying and run the abusive tape over and over in our heads. ("I, a human being, should never make a mistake.")
Stress is sometimes good and even healthy. However, destructive distress caused by fear and intimidation has an enormously negative impact on health. This distress is caused by toxic work practices. This distress is not accountable to any reasonable corporate goal. It achieves nothing positive.
"When a lion is roaring inches from our face, it makes sense that our focus is on the lion's mouth, with its sharp teeth. We want to live. However, unless we take a step back and take a wider view, we will not notice that the lion is chained tightly to the back wall. The lion can never reach us. Bullying causes fear and sometimes paralysis," Heslin says.
So the problem-solver must take the wider view, he argues. The prime need is to stand back and gather information, slow things down, be slow to criticise and fast to create safety, not vice versa. We must accept the various experiences described.
"Two opposing experiences do not have to be judged by you to create solutions." If the victim and bully both say they are bullied, you may not have to adjudicate on the truth to make progress. "You need to work with the target of bullying, not on the target. Remember, the victim is telling you something, even if it cannot be called bullying for legal reasons. He/she may be struggling to find the language to say something important," Heslin says.
The judicial approach to internal workplace investigations often doesn't work, he says. The remedy for workplace bullying is proactive and concentrates on what the victim/target wants: safety. A legalistic witch-hunt while the victim is left in limbo is not justice and can undermine safety and trust. The victim becomes the pariah of the whole organisation. The opportunity is lost because it was not seen.
Moving the victim from the department and leaving the bully in place is seen as injustice and causes more problems for managers later. "The victim's difficulty must be seen as a symptom of a larger opportunity. The target of bullying becomes the messenger of useful information, not the scapegoat of our fear," Heslin concludes.
Dr Paul Heslin is a GP, a workplace consultant and bullying counsellor. He can be contacted at 087-6722892 or alive3000@eircom.net