The effects of bullying and harassment can be profound for the victim and their friends and family, as well as impacting team morale, productivity and organisational reputation.

Bullying and harassment affects people differently and depending on the severity can lead to physical and mental illness, relationship breakdown, damaged careers and more. 

It can take many forms, including:

– Ignoring or excluding someone or encouraging others to do so
– Spreading rumours and gossip
– Humiliating, insulting or intimidating someone
– Setting unachievable or meaningless tasks
– Micro-managing or constantly undervaluing someone’s work performance
– Stealing credit or discounting achievements
– Threatening job loss

We know that workplace bullying erodes the physical, emotional and mental health of the person who is targeted and sometimes those who are close to them. It damages the physical, emotional and mental health of the person who is targeted.

The workplace bully abuses power, bringing misery to his or her target, and endeavours to steal the target’s self-confidence. Bullies often involve others using many tactics such as blaming for errors, unreasonable work demands, insults, putdowns, stealing credit, threatening job loss, and discounting accomplishments – affecting not only their work environment but also impacting family and domestic life.

When bullying is not addressed, it creates a toxic culture and increases stress, sickness-absence and reputational damage for the organisation. It’s a huge, but often silent, problem in organisations that frequently plays out under the radar of HR or management. 

At Cerulean we work to raise awareness and improve culture, so that bullying and harassment can be identified and dealt with promptly.

You can read more about our Bullying & Harassment training here.