The Hindu Business Line : The workplace bullies

One has heard of harassment at the workplace, but bullying? Wasn't it that untamed, unsophisticated way of exerting force over the weaker ones best exhibited in one's youth or last heard during days of college ragging? An informal survey across the corporate world revealed a definite presence of bullying. Varying in forms and degrees, it is commensurate with the perpetrator's qualification, training, experience and affluence. It goes by different names, but the effects remain the same. Workplace bullying is no different from the tactics of the neighbourhood bully. The reasons and the consequences are common to each other. Bullying is behind all forms of harassment, discrimination, prejudice, abuse, persecution, conflict and violence.

When Madhu (name withheld on request) joined work in a media organisation, little did she know that her very existence would be threatened, just because she was more capable than the rest. Also being single would make her an easier target for slander and character assassination. Since she tried out different and novel ways of doing her job, made her immediate bosses and colleagues gang up against her "to teach her a lesson". Promotions and pay hikes being seniority and time-bound, they saw little sense in being innovative or for that matter working beyond what was absolutely essential.

Coming from a completely different background, having studied in the best public schools, graduating from one of India's premier colleges, and finally belonging to a family of senior bureaucrats, made Madhu tick differently. Her guiding force was not money but passion and belief in what she was doing. Her work was initially plagiarised, stolen and copied. When she took up these issues on moral grounds, her bullies singled her out by making disparaging remarks, hinting at an affair with a junior. When this too did not work, they lobbied to get her shunted into an area where she would be creatively choked. This was followed by threatening calls at her residence, her car was stoned and her movements tracked. Despite political intervention, a stage came, when unable to take the abuse, she bought peace by tendering in her resignation. That is when the bullying stopped.

In organisational bullying, there is a combination of pressure bullying and corporate bullying. In Madhu's case, it started off with individual bullying going on to include vicarious bullying (two parties engaging in adversarial conflict) and then to serial bullying (persistent bullying which went on for years, involving inter-departmental teams), before culminating in a situation where the employers pleaded helpless. Usually, when an organisation struggles to adapt to changing markets, reduced income, cuts in budgets, imposed expectations and other external pressures, it ends up bullying its employees. It takes advantage of the fact that the law is weak and jobs are scarce. This emboldens it to introduce ad hoc rules — pushing employees to clock in more than the stipulated hours of work, cut down on over time, slash leave travel concessions, reduce medical reimbursements and force employees to take a salary cut. Life is made difficult for those who resist and in `troublesome' cases, services are terminated.

According to a senior HR executive, an effective way of cutting unwanted flab or pushing a non-performing employee to quit is to transfer him to the back of beyond, knowing fully well that he has family commitments like old parents to take care of or a working wife who is unlikely to leave the city. The organisation can also unwittingly `betray' their own employee by secretly complying with a key client.

Client bullying is usually found in the service sector like an advertising agency, where the `big bucks client' holds the agency to ransom by bullying the person who is servicing their account. The agency, in this case, allows it to happen since it fears losing business. Reasons for bullying the employee could be as trivial as the client not liking his face. Neither does he want the employee to be substituted with someone else nor does he want to mould him to suit his needs. The sole purpose is to harass him for whatever reason and for this the cooperation of the agency's employers is imperative so that the cat-and-mouse game can carry on and the employee is left dangling like a miserable nervous wreck, unsure of how to swing his apple cart. He neither wants to displease his employer nor `misbehave' with the client.

The worst thing for a victim is to be at the receiving end of secondary bullying. This is a logical second degree, where the bully manages to create a negative atmosphere, wherein those who are physically around the victim too end up distancing themselves from the victim, as long as they are not affected directly.

And the latest to hit the workplace is cyber bullying, where technology is used to intimidate and frighten the victim.

What makes corporate bullying difficult to quantify and assess is that it rarely spills over in obvious or overt ways such as fistfights, abuses and lewd gestures. Since none of this happens, there is a near absence of registered complaints. The entire operation gets conducted with devious mastery, machination and implications. Nine out of 10 cases of victimising behaviour or workplace bullying results in forced resignation, increased sickness absence, low productivity, exclusion from productive duties, low morale, high staff turnover and in rare cases, expensive legal costs. The victim succumbs to the intention of the bully — he either tenders in his resignation; stays out of the bully's range of fire; is cornered into accepting a less important portfolio or lets the bully walk away with the credit for the hard work done by him.

Aggression, non-cooperation, name-calling and harbouring of deep-seated resentment are different facets of workplace bullying. The sad and worrying part is that it thrives largely because of the denial and secrecy, which surround it. Lot of employees, especially in smaller cities, do not even recognise bullying. They accept it as an inevitable occupational hazard. Minor belittling — being made to feel unwanted, unwelcome, criticised or patronised (in case of women) is something they feel they must bear for having ventured into the working field where wolves are waiting to find a bait.

While harassment still has a public face, bullying doesn't. Yet, the two are different. Harassment, whether it is racial, sexual or otherwise, is usually incident specific, while bullying is persistent and unwelcome behaviour which impacts the emotional, psychological and mental health of the victim besides ruining his career graph for life.

Kartik, a supervisor with an auto component firm, was dismissed while on sick leave. There had been unresolved issues between two camps of workers on the shop floor. He was managing to hold his own till he was healthy and regular in his work. After an accident (which he feels was deliberate, but is yet to be proved otherwise), he was forced to apply for leave. First his medical bills were not cleared, then a case was made out that he had been careless at work and had, in fact, jeopardised the safety of his fellow workers and was, therefore, not entitled to any medical compensation. Finally, his leave was cancelled, he was asked to join on a specific date, failing which it was threatened that his services would be terminated.

He also saw an advertisement for his job-position on the company's Web site, while he was still on leave. Though he pursued his case at a consumer court, it had a serious effect on his self-esteem, health and personal relationships. He strongly believes that an independent legal neutral service for employees is a must, if bullying at the workplace has to be realistically assessed and dealt with.

Unlike everyday conflicts at work, bullying is a long-lasting conflict, where one person is systematically harassed by one or more colleagues or superiors, resulting in severe damage to the victim's psychological and physical health. It also creates an unhealthy working atmosphere usually by intimidating the rest. Kartik also adds that though he gave up the fight and decided to leave without being humiliated further, things could get ugly for those who decide to fight while within the system. In this case, the company itself could turn hostile, non-cooperative and retaliatory, choosing to support the bully instead or worse still getting bullied by the bully. There have been cases where the bully has exerted his influence with politicians or other important people to get his way, twisting the arms of his employers too.

The crossover

When does friendliness and banter become sexual harassment? When does an ambitious and pushy boss make the crossover to becoming a heartless, bulldozing and tyrannical bully? When does a whimpering insecure colleague, whose whining you don't even take seriously, gang up with your entire team to collectively pull you down in crucial public meetings with the big bosses, finally succeeding in making you look like an over-competitive solo player and not a healthy team player, forcing you to opt out of the project you had been looking forward to being a part of? How are you expected to react when the team goes onto use 80 per cent of your work, make an overseas trip based on that and return with foreign investments and raised salaries, while you are left with zero credit and frustration enough to contemplate suicide many times over? How do you deal with constant bullying, simply because you are the chosen one?

Today's work environment, which puts so much pressure on regional and departmental heads and CEOs to perform, raise revenues, meet deadlines, procure orders, file in a certain amount of advertising revenue or sales figures has further fuelled the existence and shaping of the bully.

There is almost a covert kind of compliance here. The subtle message seems to be, "go ahead, push the Johnnies, make them sweat it out, for only then will your salaries be assured". According to statistics, 81 per cent bullies are bosses. Many people become bullies through job pressure but also can resort to bullying because they lack self esteem or find it an escapist's way of correcting their personality flaws by grasping for power which they believe is theirs. Beneath the combative veneer all bullies are cowards and liars.

The basic purpose of bullying is to hide inadequacy. It has nothing to do with managing because good managers are meant to manage, it is the bad managers who resort to bullying. It is an inefficient way of working, resulting in disenchantment, demoralisation, demotivation, disaffection and alienation. Bullies run dysfunctional and inefficient organisations. Such organisations even if they show profits are actually nothing but bad long-term investments.

Making somebody a scapegoat

Workplace bullying is not always targeted at employees. On the flip side, it could be an employee who for illegitimate reason has learned how to twist the system and hold the company to ransom. There could also be times when the management's choice is rejected by a collective majority of employees, forcing them to eat humble pie.

Take the case of Gautam Ghai, a manager in a finance company, who moved from Delhi to Kolkata on promotion. Little did he know that the cultural differences between Punjabis and Bengalis would slice through his brilliant career record. He walked into a hornet's nest.

His staff of 60 people was used to a laid-back way of life, and were unwilling to give up either their siesta hour or their style of working. They were upset with the fact that the organisation had chosen an `outsider' to `manage' them, instead of choosing one of them to head the office. They made up their mind to create a situation where there would be a riot of mismanagement and the company, via its new honcho, would be made to look ridiculous.

Gautam's fancy presentations of making Kolkata the hub of financial activity found no takers. His "aggressive Punjabi traits" were trashed and there was complete non-cooperation from the entire staff. His bosses back in Delhi were unable to resolve the crisis and finally driven to an emotional breakdown, Gautam returned with a health problem and also the stigma of not being able to `swing things'. Though the management knew the real story, the 2,000-strong organisation did not.

Most management consultants feel that while tame office conflict is acceptable, it is the ulcer producing variety that is usually the cause for worry. In some cases the boss likes to create an environment which has a bit of it, so that it keeps everyone on their toes, no serious ganging up or unionisation is encouraged and each one is working hard to keep his name and work above board. Some countries have included anti-bullying codes of practise under the Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act, where, if found guilty, a bully could face criminal prosecution though it is still to find a way into the regular legal systems.

Psychologists feel that bullying and intimidation cannot thrive unless an organisation or employee allows it. Undoubtedly, if the workplace bully is left untamed, his blitzkrieg personality could turn into a workplace malignancy. In an already uncertain work environment, where there is high stress because of unremitting change such as downsizing, marketing pressure and structural/ethical changes, workplace bullying, if unchecked, could lead to volatile and even violent situations leading to a complete breakdown of operations, goodwill and profitability.

Illustration: J.A. Premkumar

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