Over the years and across many sectors, workplace bullying has become one of the most urgent issues affecting the mental, emotional, and physical health of many employees. The problems of sustained harassment ripple into other areas of a person’s life and go well beyond the workplace. These problems include anxiety, depression, burnout, and poor productivity. Given the potential and serious consequences, addressing such bullying is vital to developing a sustained commitment to healthy and inclusive workplaces.
To read about the mental health impact of workplace harassment, please see this guide on bullying.
What Is Workplace Bullying?
Workplace bullying is defined as repeated, unreasonable behavior toward an employee or a group of employees that has the potential to harm their health and safety. Bullying is fundamentally different from occasional disagreements or constructive criticism. Contrary to bullying, the latter does not involve the intent to harm—emotionally, verbally, or psychologically. Bullying occurs in many forms, such as humiliation, exclusion, intimidation, and manipulation.
Some typical cases include:
- Constant criticism or undermining of work performance.
- Gossip or rumor spreading.
- Ignoring or isolating a team member.
- Yelling, insults, or threats.
- Excessive micromanagement or setting impossible deadlines.
Such behaviors—overt and subtle—have a profound impact on the victim’s mental health.
The Psychological Impact of Workplace Bullying
Bullying takes a huge emotional toll on someone. Employees experiencing bullying get additional feelings of emotional mistreatment, such as fear, anxiety, helplessness, and embarrassment. With time, these emotions can lead to far worse psychological issues.
Stress, Anxiety, and Depression
Bullying victims and targets steep within deep feelings of distress and develop anxiety and depression, therefore, becoming dysfunctional daily. They may develop a work dread, lose motivation, and even lose focus on a task. When a stressful situation of this magnitude occurs, it activates the body’s fight-or-flight response, keeping a person in a state of distress.
Reduced Self-Esteem
When a person is repeatedly belittled, they start to internalize it and begin to doubt their self-worth and self-confidence. When this self-doubt is not fixed, a person can develop a more severe psychological issue, such as deep depression.
Signs and Symptoms of Post-Traumatic Stress
Someone who is being bullied and harassed over a long period of time may develop a trauma-like response to this bullying, alongside emotional bullying. The bullying is aggressive, leading the victim to develop PTSD-like symptoms such as flashbacks and nightmares.
The Consequences to Our Physical Health
Workplace bullying negatively impacts psychological health and creates stressful work conditions; therefore, bullying also impacts physical health. There is research to support this claim, as it states problems and illnesses arise in upper levels due to prolonged exposure to toxic work environments.
Chronic Stress and Fatigue
People feeling constant workplace pressure may feel fatigue and have sleep and headache issues. Fatigue can also lead to decreased immunity and increased illness susceptibility.
Stress-Mediated Heart Issues
Stress contributes to poor health as emotional and physical strain work together. Stress can also lead to high blood pressure and be a contributing factor to heart disease.
Stress-Mediated Digestive and Muscular Disorders
Stress can lead to underperformance in one’s work. Abused employees report having bodily pain even in the absence of injury because the body tries to cope with continuous stress.
Impact on the Individual and Organization
Bullying in the workplace is an organizational problem and not just an individual one. Fluent and clean collaboration is destroyed under a toxic culture, leading to the deterioration of trust and the spirit of teamwork.
Diminished Engagement and Productivity
People being bullied at work disengage from the work designed for and keep to themselves. This disengagement leads to a lack in teamwork and the sharing of ideas, stalled collective work potential, and innovative progress.
Absenteeism and Turnover
To escape the bullying, employees take sick leave to avoid the workplace. This bullying also leads to increased turnover as employees leave sick and after a while even resign. This decrease in retention and increase in turnover lead to higher recruitment and turnover costs for the company.
The Negative Impact of Company Reputation
A workplace with bullying issues earns a bad reputation quickly. This makes it difficult for a company to gain and keep the attention of potential top employees, which is a long-term and damaging brand image.
The Signs of Workplace Bullying
Bullying is one of the toxic workplace behaviors that, when it goes unchecked, can cause lasting damage to the workplace. This includes behavioral and emotional struggles that employees show.
Some of the warning signs include the following:
- Isolation from peers or avoidance of social interactions
- Drop in work quality or productivity
- Frequent unexcused absences
- Signs of stress, anxiety, or excessive irritability
- Expressing feelings of being trapped or hopeless
Training is critical so that managers, leaders and HR can take empathy-first steps.
Steps to Solve Workplace Bullying
To create a healthy workplace, steps to solve bullying in the workplace need to be taken. This is the responsibility of the employees, the management, and the leaders in HR.
For Employees
- Document Blame Incidents: Record all of the bullying behaviors in a paper or electronic file that is organized, includes the date and time, and any witnesses.
- Ask for Help: A trusted coworker, counselor, or therapist can help you figure out your feelings and help you see things differently.
- Know Your Rights: Learn about the anti-bullying policies your workplace may have.
For Employers
- Create a Zero-Tolerance Policy: Make your anti-bullying policies clear and enforceable.
- Encourage Open Communication: Make it safe for employees to speak up without retaliation or fear.
- Provide Training: Teach empathy and conflict resolution as well as effective and polite communication.
- Support Mental Health Resources: Make sure those affected have access to counseling or EAPs.
Building a Positive and Respectful Workplace Culture
To stop workplace bullying, we must first improve the workplace culture by focusing on respect. When leaders practice communication and fairness, employees will thrive.
Encourage employees to work together rather than focus on competition. Praise their successes in front of others, but give constructive criticism in private. Focus on diversity and inclusion so that every employee feels valued and supported.
Respectful workplace culture requires leaders to practice empathy, active listening, and fairness. A positive workplace culture prevents bullying and fosters creativity, engagement, and performance.
Healing from Bullying in Your Workplace
Healing from bullying in the workplace takes time, self-care, and understanding from those around him/her. Professional help in the area of mental health helps rebuild self-esteem, understand trauma, and integrate healthy coping systems.
Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT), mindfulness, and relaxation therapy can help. Counseling is not a weakness; it is a critical aid in reclaiming a safe space and self-worth.
Undoubtedly, the trauma of workplace bullying can be crippling. Those in the scoping area must be trauma and workplace bullying-informed, so effective help can be materialized.
Summary
Unhealthy workplace relationships can have a crippling effect and can lead to a decline in quality of life. Spotting the issue, understanding, and implementing healthy systems is critical in inbuilt growth.
Everyone should have a safe workspace that allows them to increase sick leave, grow in mental health, and reclaim a healthy self.
At San Jose Mental Health, we understand the importance of a safe workspace, and mental health is a part of it.
Every employee deserves to be treated with respect.
