The time has come to implement a multi layered approach to protect bullied workers.
Incredibly, unlike other indicators of negative workplace culture, such as sexual harassment or discrimination, there are currently no laws protecting workers from bullying.
In his recent article, ‘Time to outlaw toxic bullies’ in the Financial Review, Josh Bornstein, the principle of employment and industrial law at Maurice Blackburn in Melbourne, painted a drastic picture of the legal landscape for bullied workers.
As the last (and sometimes only) line of defense for workers subjected to bullying at work, Bornstein, regularly faces the devastating emotional effects of workplace bullying.
‘It (bullying) corrodes dignity, self-esteem, job satisfaction, motivation and ultimately mental and physical health. In particularly bad cases, employees who experience bullying are so damaged they are unable to return to the labour market’.
For Bornstein the answer is a beefed up legislative system that has the strength to shine a light into workplaces that allow bullying behaviours to fester.
Imposing robust legal sanctions should be supported as a protection mechanism but only while accepting the limitations this approach has regarding prevention.
Certainly a legal approach will force some businesses and employers to confront their shortcomings and, under threat of legal action, improve the worker experience. However, others will be immune to an overhaul of the legal system due to inflated egos, lack of empathy, or a recommitment to a culture of intimidation and terror that provides its own inherit protection when staff are too scared to speak out.
As a human rights lawyer and workplace trainer Mark Dean, Managing Director of En Masse, has a broader perspective on this important issue.
‘Certainly there is an immediate need to improve legal protection for all workers, particularly those being subjected to bullying. However, by the time these cases are played out in court the psychological and emotional damage is done and no amount of compensation will make up for that’.
For Dean the emphasis needs to be on culture building and changing the behaviours and environments where bullying flourishes.
‘There is little doubt that workplace culture has an enormous impact on job satisfaction, mental and physical health, stress levels, self-esteem, and general wellbeing. Building better workplace cultures help businesses manage risk, but it also improves employee connectedness (connection to our work, workplace, workplace values and colleagues) and improves productivity’.
If the aim is to prevent bullying in the workplace then surely a greater emphasis and investment in organisational culture change offers the best chance at sustainable protection for workers. Changing the attitudes and behaviours through values based workplace education and training will build safer, healthier, more empathetic cultures that are free of bullying.
For more information on how En Masse can help you build a safer, healthier and more productive workplace culture please call us on (03) 9827 1388.
