Impact of workplace bullying Essay

Submitted By Jacklyn-Ybarra
Words: 844
Pages: 4

The Impact of Workplace Bullying
Name
BUS600: Management Communications
Instructor: Dr. Cheryl Moore Date
The Impact of Workplace Bullying
Workplace Bullying: Costly and Preventable reveals statistics, effects of, and prevention of workplace bullying. According to the article 72% of bullies are bosses, 57% of targets are women, 60% of bullies are men, and bullying occurs four times more often than illegal types of harassing behavior just to state a few. Wiedmer states that “Bullies seek to induce harm, jeopardize one's career and job, and destroy interpersonal relationships.” (Wiedmer, 2011). Many bullies target the well liked, high-achieving, highly social, and intelligent because they are perceived as a threat to the bully and are often targets for sabotage. It is no surprise that 72% of bullies are in management because they are the ones with the most power over the bullied; a manager can threaten your position, block promotions, block lateral movement, and also controls workload and schedule.
“Profile of the Typical Workplace Bully: Bullies engage in predictable and recurring practices to debase and debilitate their targets (Bully Online), Individuals who engage in such uncivil and amoral workplace bullying tactics demonstrate common elements and behaviors. Are any of these behaviors evident in your workplace? If so, you, too, may be subject to potentially being bullied.” (Wiedmer, 2011).
Stopping bullying completely is something that I do not think will ever happen, but according to the article there are many ways to reduce it by putting policies in place, having trusted individuals available, and consequences for bullying. Bullying is everyone’s problem and responsibility and should be dealt with as a community in the workplace.
Baack states “Unethical messages seeking to injure or damage another in some way are common” (Baack, 2012). Workplace bullying is something that I see daily, I am not sure if I just happen to work with an unusual number of toxic people or if it is just this common. There are various instances of bullying that go on daily, one of them is actually an older lady that sits right next to me; very sweet, apparently kind and genuine, in front of management. We call her the head of the snake because she has 3 minions that do her bidding, cover up her missteps, and even lie on reports for her. She has mad multiple people cry, contemplate quitting, and I have personally stopped someone from physical violence against her. I was able to check off every single profile attribute in the articles bully profile. Now, all that being said, I have never encountered a bully like her; most bullies have an agenda of some kind that is beneficial financially or something of the sort, but not her. Her end game is simply getting rid of people that make it obvious that she does not work all day. I was hired (without her knowledge) to gather evidence for her dismissal, and replace her as well; it was not long until she started in on me after she felt threatened, unfortunately for her I am not easily intimidated, turned it around on her and left her with her mouth hanging open. As for specific practices of bullying by her to others “Distort, misrepresent, and twist anything said or done, Single out, treat one differently from others, or ostracize, Steal or plagiarize work and take credit for it,