Beating the Workplace Bully

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Beating the Workplace Bully Page 3

by Lynne Curry

 Holds past employees, employers, or coworkers responsible

  for his unhappiness

   Hates to have her authority questioned

   Treats others poorly when he can get away with it

   Delights in making your life difficult

   Intimidates you or others

   Puts you in the wrong so she can make herself appear right

  Beware: What the Bul y Wants, the Bul y Gets

  LAURA BUILT HER business from scratch while living on rice, beans, and

  peanut butter. Over years of sixty-hour workweeks, she’d created essen-

  tial materials for anyone who wanted to launch a successful business in

  her field.

  Through her hard work and passion about the services she provided

  her clients, Laura made a name for herself. Clients sought her out, and

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  Are You a Bully Magnet? ❚ 15

  her business produced a growing profit. She hired an administrative

  assistant and focused on providing her clients with top-quality work.

  When Laura decided to grow her business, she hired Martin and com-

  mitted herself to helping him develop.

  Despite Laura’s generosity, Martin envied how clients viewed his boss.

  He wanted her reputation for himself. He took Laura’s name and copy-

  right off original materials she’d developed, and replaced them with his

  own. He bad-mouthed her to clients.

  When Laura cal ed Martin on his actions, he smiled an al igator smile,

  and said, “So sad, too bad, see you around” and walked out the door

  before she could fire him. After Martin left, Laura not only spent weeks

  cleaning up the messes Martin made, she also learned that Martin had

  solicited her best clients for his planned new business.

  Although some clients hadn’t liked Martin, several asked, “Were you

  asleep at the wheel?” Laura soon realized that al owing Martin too much

  latitude before she got to know him tarnished her reputation along with

  Martin’s.

  In the weeks that fol owed, several clients cal ed Laura sharing the

  stories Martin had told them about her, al eging she’d come on to him

  sexual y, and fired him when he’d turned her down. Though few cli-

  ents believed these stories, just hearing them made Laura sick to her

  stomach.

  Then the tweets and blog postings from myriad email accounts

  started coming. Posters Laura didn’t know and couldn’t trace accused

  her of lying about her degree, sleeping with clients, and stealing oth-

  ers’ work and passing it off as her own. Laura, who had loved going to

  work and interacting with clients in person and on social media, soon

  dreaded answering the phone or logging on to Twitter.

  One by one, Laura’s clients left her, in part because she never

  regained her fighting spirit, al owing Martin to “steal” the reputation he

  envied.

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  16 ❚ BEATING THE WORKPLACE BULLY

  Has a bully come after you because you had something he or she

  wanted?

  On the Radar: An Easy Target

  SONJA WAS INEXPERIENCED and new to the workplace, so she kept

  to herself. Her tremulous voice and slender build gave her an air of

  permanent fragility. She worked alongside Alice, who excel ed at snip-

  ing. “Look who forgot to button her blouse,” Alice quipped when Sonja

  walked into the staff meeting. When Sonja reddened, Alice snickered,

  “Look who’s gul ible!”

  As Sonja cast her eyes down, Alice continued to bait her. “Looking at

  your photo badge,” she proclaimed, grabbing the photo ID on the lan-

  yard around Sonja’s neck. “I would too. That’s an awful picture. Go back

  to HR and make them take it again!”

  Sonja, reeling from the public attack and unable to think of how

  to handle it, sat in frozen silence during the short staff meeting, even

  though the topic was one in which she had a keen interest. Alice, how-

  ever, spoke out, scoring points with the corporate executive who chaired

  the meeting.

  When Sonja returned to her desk, she put her head down. She’d let

  Alice attack her without defending herself.

  Like Sonja, do you signal you’re an easy target? Bullies read peo-

  ple for a living, choosing vulnerable individuals who wear their sensi-

  tivity on their sleeves as targets.

  Are You an Easy Target?

  Questions to ask yourself include:

   Are you meek?

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  Are You a Bully Magnet? ❚ 17

   Would you rather submit to bad treatment than engage in

  conflict?

   Have you made the mistake of letting the wrong person

  know you were exploited in a prior job?

   Does past personal trauma haunt you, causing you to freeze

  when confronted?

   Are you social y isolated, without work al ies to back you up

  and ward off a bul y’s attacks?

   Do others consider you unlikely to confront them if they

  tread on you?

   Do you signal vulnerability in other ways?

  If you answered “yes” to any of these questions, bul ies may find

  you on their radar.

  If You Let Them, They Will Do It: Lousy Treatment

  THE FIRST TIME Andy barked at Annette, she raised an eyebrow and

  asked, “Bad day? Would you prefer I come back later?” “Let’s do it,”

  he snarled. “You people push for this and push for that. You think you’re

  the only people who count. What’s this f---ing email you sent all about?”

  Annette got up and left his office.

  Andy sent her a stormy email, which she forwarded to their supervisor

  and Human Resources. The next day, a chastened Andy responded with

  the information Annette had requested.

  By contrast, Annette’s predecessor, Suzanne, stayed put despite

  Andy’s tirades, even when he cal ed her a “f---ing bitch.” Convinced she

  needed Andy’s information to complete her report, Suzanne endured

  meetings in which a red-faced Andy screamed in her face. When

  Suzanne final y quit, others asked why she had put up with it for so long.

  Suzanne answered, “I kept thinking it would get better.”

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  18 ❚ BEATING THE WORKPLACE BULLY

  Do bullies target you because you let them?

  Don’t pass the test you should fail. Bullies eat nice people alive.

  They test to see if you’ll allow bad treatment and, if you do, they esca-

  late their abuse.

  Just Say “No”: Give Away Your Power

  AFTER LEAVING HER last job to get away from a bul y, Tova hoped for

  a fresh start in her new position as an inside sales professional. Her new

  boss, Buck, told her she’d support the rest of the sales team, and also

  have her own clients.

  “Will they mind that I’ve never done sales?” Tova asked.

  “We’re hiring you for your administrative support skil s, essential for

  success in inside sales. Besides, you’ll have Ariel e, the other woman on

  the team, to help you get the hang of things.”

  The problems began her first day. As Tova headed to her desk, A
riel e

  asked, “You like coffee?” “I love it,” answered Tova. “Great,” said Ariel e.

  “When you grab yours from the cart in the lobby, I want a café latte

  grande with caramel.”

  Not sure what the customs were on her new team, Tova said “Sure,”

  and headed to the cart. When she handed Ariel e her $5 drink, Ariel e,

  who was on the phone, waved her away, mouthing, “Busy.”

  Tova expected Ariel e to reciprocate with coffee the next morning.

  Ariel e didn’t. Instead, when Ariel e saw Tova heading for the coffee

  cart, Ariel e cal ed out, “My usual.” Tova didn’t want to make waves,

  and knew she needed Ariel e’s guidance to become a success, so she

  bought Ariel e a second latte. And a third.

  Tova never received guidance from Ariel e. Once, when Tova handed

  Ariel e a draft proposal and asked, “I’d like your thoughts on this,” Ariel e responded, “Do you know your name is a four-letter word?”

  As Tova’s jaw dropped, Ariel e said, “You asked my thoughts. That’s

  what I thought.”

  Shocked, Tova said, “That hurts!”

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  Are You a Bully Magnet? ❚ 19

  “Oh, poor baby,” Ariel e goaded, smiling at another employee.

  “Toughen up.”

  While others on the sales team weren’t the bul y Ariel e was, they soon

  learned that if they asked, “Hey, Tova, could you . . . ,” she would say,

  “Sure.” That didn’t mean they helped Tova when Ariel e belittled her.

  Instead, the others, like Ariel e, gave Tova the grunt work projects they

  didn’t want. Although Tova knew the requests were unreasonable, she

  did what they asked.

  Like Tova, do you have no power, or do you have “no” power? If

  you’re tired of being a doormat, you owe it to yourself to say “no more”

  or “stop” when a bully takes advantage of you or puts you down. If

  you allow disrespectful treatment, you hand over your power.

  Your Turn: Where Are You Now?

  1. What in the past put you in a bul y’s crosshairs? Which of the

  six factors fits you?

  2. Into what category does head nurse Mol y fit? What mis-

  takes did she make?

  3. If you’ve had bad luck, how do you plan to make it

  change? If you are unable to change your situation, how

  can you change your responses to the bul ying in a way that

  doesn’t feed the bul y’s desire to hurt or demean you?

  4. Have you ignored warning signs? If so, which? What have

  you learned for next time?

  5. Has a bul y come after you because you had something the

  bul y wanted? If so, have you let the bul y take it away? Is

  there a way you can regain what was yours?

  6. Are there ways in which you signal that you are an easy

  target?

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  20 ❚ BEATING THE WORKPLACE BULLY

  7. You’re a walking history of everything that’s happened to

  you until you decide to rewrite your history. Are there past

  incidents that have made you vulnerable to bul ying? Write

  two of them on a piece of paper, then describe what you

  want your pattern to be in the future.

  8. Have you given away your power as Mol y and Tova did?

  Name one way in which you can immediately start to take

  your power back. Put your decision into action within the

  week.

  Some of these questions may have stirred up past emo-

  tions. Which ones? Shame? Sadness? Anger? Despair? Tel

  yourself you can let go of those feelings, that you don’t

  need to keep holding them inside. When you are hurt, you

  may find yourself holding onto the hurt. You may feel that

  if you can figure it out, it won’t be as painful. Unfortunately,

  you often hurt yourself all over again when you think about

  an experience that drags you down. If that’s the case, you

  may want to find a private place and let yourself express

  that feeling by crying, punching soft pil ows, or shaking your

  fists. You may decide to journal. If that doesn’t work, you

  may want to locate a coach or counselor in your area.

  NOTES

  1. Naomi Shavin, “What Workplace Bullying Looks Like in 2014—and How

  to Intervene,” workplace bullying study by David Maxfield and Joseph Grenny, Forbes, June 25, 2014.

  2. Gary Namie, 2014 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey, February 2014,

  http://www.workplacebullying.org/wbiresearch/wbi-2014-us-survey.

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  2

  YOU CAN RUN,

  BUT YOU CAN’T HIDE

  BULLIES DON’T GO AWAY ON THEIR OWN

  Only those who will risk going too far can possibly

  find out how far one can go.

  —T. S. ELIOT

  B

  “ EING TREATED AS IF I was a piece of crap at work took away my

  sense of who I was and replaced it with shame,” said head nurse

  Mol y. “I’d never met someone as cold, self-righteous, or cruel as Pauline.

  After weeks of being bul ied, I didn’t know what to do but quit.”

  When a bully first confronts you, you may wonder, “Why me?”

  The answer—while bullying says more about the bully than it does

  about you, you’re the one who has to learn to stand up for yourself.

  You may have tried to ignore a workplace bully, hoping things

  would get better on their own. You may believe that if you act pro-

  fessionally and politely, bullies will leave you alone or act nicely in

  return.

  This ignores the truth about bullying.

  You can’t expect bullies to go away on their own.

  Bullies perceive niceness and avoidance as weakness and an invi-

  tation to take advantage. Those who don’t stand up to the bully’s ini-

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  22 ❚ BEATING THE WORKPLACE BULLY

  tial attack signal they’re easy prey and inadvertently encourage con-

  tinued bullying.

  When someone snipes at you and you ignore it, most people take

  the hint, realize they are being jerks, and stop. Those folks aren’t

  bullies.

  On the other hand, if a bully insults you and you don’t counter it,

  the bully pokes a second time, testing your boundaries. If you don’t

  counter the second jab, you prove you’re an easy target. The situation

  then spirals out of control, and the bullying escalates, particularly if

  the workplace audience rewards the bully with laughter.

  You may consider bullies wrongdoers who need to fix the prob-

  lems they create. In practice, the opposite is true. Even if what’s hap-

  pening isn’t your fault, you are the one who must fix it, because you

  can’t expect the bully to change.

  You may expect to receive help from coworkers or your supervisor

  when under fire. However, many bullies reveal their true selves only

  to their target while maintaining a charming front to the rest of the

  world. Also, because the rest of us give the benefit of the doubt to everyone until we personally experience otherwise, bystanders rarely

  help those slammed by bullies. When bystanders finally realize what’s

  going on, they may run for cover or
consider the fight yours rather

  than theirs.

  Under current law, bullying isn’t illegal, unless it evolves into

  physical violence or is directed against employees who have “pro-

  tected” status under municipal, state, or federal laws, such as Title

  VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in

  Employment Act, or the Americans with Disabilities Act. Unfortu-

  nately for you and millions of other workplace bullying victims, most

  employers lack anti-bullying policies of their own and treat work-

  place bullying as if it was a dirty little secret. As a result, victims must

  figure out how to handle the situation on their own. If you are one of

  these “unprotected” victims, you may be tolerating bullying, hoping

  it goes away.

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  You Can Run, but You Can’t Hide ❚ 23

  Are You a Victim of Bullying?

  Bul ies often do things that make your work life a nightmare.

   Do you walk on eggshel s around an individual with a

  hair-trigger temper?

   Does someone you work with regularly call you vile names

  or insult you?

   Does a coworker, boss, or other employee intimidate you

  with aggressive body language or physical violence?

   Does a boss, coworker, or other employee humiliate you in

  front of others and/or repeatedly berate you in private?

   Does a coworker subject you to a stream of insulting emails?

   Do you work with a person who frequently criticizes you in

  public because he or she knows you won’t fight back?

  If so, you may have shut your eyes to the fact you’re

  being bullied.

  Further, others in your workplace may encourage you to compro-

  mise with the bully. They may question whether you’re making things

  up or creating the problem. They may abandon or betray you. You

  may feel you stand alone—and that may be true.

  Many victims internalize bullying, feeling they somehow deserve

  the treatment they receive. You may wonder what’s wrong with you or

  why you can’t handle the situation.

  If you’re experiencing bullying, you’re not to blame.

  If you take what a bully says or does personally, or allow dis-

  respectful treatment, you collude with the bully and abdicate your

  responsibility to yourself. Don’t let bullies stomp on your spirit or

  invite themselves into your head.

  American Management Association • www.amanet.org

 

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