When we think of bullying, the first thing that pops up in our mind is the reckless bullying many of us witnessed during our student life. Almost all of us grew up with the cruel truth that bullying is part of growing up. A similar phenomenon is also evident in our daily office life but we hardly know about the negative impact of this and rather we are taught to embrace this as 'office politics' which we should conform to if we are to excel in our career.
No one expects to go to work and feel as if they are back to the school playground. Sadly though, bullying is common for many workers. There are very limited survey results published in Bangladesh that can depict the magnitude of this-- how many of us suffer office bullying, but it is for certain that almost all of us have personally experienced office bullying or seen our closed ones to suffer for the same stream. Even more tragic is the fact that many victims of workplace bullying suffer in silence.
What is bullying at workplace? Workplace bullying can be termed as a repetitive mistreatment to employees which can be harmful both emotionally and physically for the employees. To deem a situation as bullying there will be one or more perpetrators and victims. Office bullying can include threatening, humiliating, intimidating, work interference, sabotage and verbal abuse.
It is seen that the person who usually suffers from low self-esteem, poor social competence, and negative affectivity is usually the one picked to be the victim of the bully, while people who consider themselves more powerful, or who have low tolerance for ambiguity and aggressiveness are usually the bullies.
The most significant impact from bullying is the psychological trauma that a victim goes through. Workplace bullying may lead to extensive psychological illness which in Bangladesh is not perceived as illness, rather weakness. The target may have high blood pressure, ulcers and other stress related disease. Most commonly the bullied workers have trouble making decisions, sleep deprivation, lack of concentration which leads to low productivity, loss of self-esteem etc. The bullied person also feels a sense of isolation which can lead to depression, post traumatic disorder, eating disorder and may even take drastic decision like committing suicide. In fact, workplace bullying can leave a person so traumatised that they may feel powerless, disoriented, confused and helpless. They even feel paralyzed and unable to do anything about the situation.
Office bullying, if not handled strictly, can bring a lot of challenges for the employer as well. Bullying at workplace will reduce the efficiency, productivity and in turn profitability of the workplace. Just because of bullying, an employer may miss out on a very talented employee who may have been very useful for the organisation. The following concerns may also raise for an employer if bullying persists: Increased absenteeism, sick leave, staff turnover, poor morale, erosion of employee loyalty and commitment, increased costs associated with recruitment and training, adverse publicity and poor public image.
By this time, as readers we must have started thinking if bullying is in the best interest of employers then why there is not much we hear about this in Bangladesh. To answer this, first we must know that unfortunately there is no strict law in our country to defend this. Also, we do not have a strong employment tribunal where employee rights are treated. Also employees fear speaking out will compromise their future opportunities and wellbeing at work, particularly when others in the workplace are reluctant to support them and therefore they restrict themselves from reporting bullying incident. Many of the employees feel no one would believe them, or they are afraid of being labeled as a big cry baby or a whiner, so they do not tell a manager or someone else in the organisation.
In some cases it has been observed that if reported an incident of bullying, then the victim face retribution from the bully in following ways: Improper work-life balance, job termination, increased physical labor etc.
While reading this article, you yourself may have recollected memory of a couple of bullying incidents that took place in your workplace and you let it pass by or adhered to it. To change this situation, it is important, therefore, that we as employers and employees promote a clear message that bullying is unacceptable in the workplace. A legal person can be appointed in the company who will look after employee well-being as well as other legal matters. Employers should also ensure that all the employees are aware that the workplace has established anti-bullying procedures, know the process for the reporting and have an understanding that their reports will be dealt with in a proper manner.
Remember, if we do not start dealing with bullying now then this will only lead to having poor productive employees. This is the time, we need to bring more support to be able to stop bullying.
The writer is working as assistant manager for Training and Development at Meena Bazar, Gemcon Group,
rabita_arefin2000@yahoo.com
Negative impact of bullying at workplace
Dewan Rabita Arefin | Published: June 04, 2015 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00
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