In the next few years there will be a dramatic increase in employee complaints and legal action related to bullying.
Three key trends are contributing directly to this: first, new anti-bullying legislation, already in place in Quebec and Saskatchewan, is sure to launch in other provinces as well.
Second, more and more unions are including bullying-related clauses in their collective agreements, thereby raising members’ awareness and requiring increased organizational accountability.
Third, the topic has become hot on the media’s agenda. For example, in 1986-1987 bullying was mentioned in the Toronto Star only 91 times and in the Globe and Mail 62 times. By 2006-2007 these numbers soared to 358 and to 273 respectively.
The more the media covers this topic, the more collective agreements refer to it and the more legislation is in place, the more likely it is that managers will be accused of bullying, whether they deserve it or not.
The good news is that this heightened awareness will serve as a welcome vehicle for curbing the behaviour of managers who indeed are bullies. The bad news is that it may also result in creating an altogether different kind of risk. Hard-working, decent managers may find themselves unfairly accused of bullying, thereby triggering a set of negative repercussions for themselves and for the workplace.
There are four particular situations that by their very nature may give rise to bullying accusations. The following situations are very common yet inherently problematic:
1. Performance management. When a manager needs to closely scrutinize an employee’s poor performance, the perception of unfair or harsh treatment may readily emerge.
2. Situations requiring exercise of authority and power. Even simple decisions regarding vacation or allotment of professional development days can be highly sensitive and open to misinterpretation.
3. Time crunches. During high-stakes time crunches, managers often resort to authoritarian or micro-management practices, and their stressed-out employees may experience this as bullying.
4. Feedback in public. Any situation where a manager provides public feedback that is critical or points to the need for improvement is by definition problematic and sensitive.
In my next entry I will suggest some simple, industrial-strength methods for handling these situations in ways that will help avoid unjustified bullying accusations.
