MORE often than not, we find ourselves in the middle of individuals who appear quiet and lack confidence in our workplaces. They easily become the centre of our crude jokes and crass humour.
Let me break it to you right away friend: you are a bully!
Workplace bullying and sexual harassment are on the rise as nepotism increases in workspaces.
Despite the fact that there exist laws that regulate these issues, most employees may not be abreast of information that indicates they have been victimised.
Workplace bullying is often linked with workplace victimisation and is observed where there is abuse/misuse of power by management or non-managerial employees. Employees feel intimidated, degraded, offended or humiliated by colleagues or management.
As well, workplace bullying is also evident when there are cases of sexual harassment, intimidation and abuse of office. This basically results in mental health issues for the worker. This behaviour usually results in conflicts that produce grudges (where workers do not see eye-to-eye), targeted blame and this affects an individual’s work ethic and dignity.
Bullying cannot be described as aggression. Bullying involves continuous slurs that create ongoing tension. Also, bullying cannot be described as tough or demanding. That’s because its main objective is undermining individuals and making them feel inferior.
For example, it may come as invalid criticism, unwarranted blame, being sworn at, favouritism, social exclusion, humiliation, a target of practical jokes or excessive monitoring. These are only a few examples of how an individual may easily be bullied in the workspace.
After those experiences, the victim is left feeling a lack of belonging and they begin to isolate themselves.
In Zimbabwe, most organisations are regulated by a Code of Conduct, approved by the Works Council established as recommended by Section 56 of the Labor Act (Chapter 28:01). This must be implemented in all organisations, containing different types of misconduct like; theft, absenteeism, drug and alcoholism, health and safety, performance, insubordination, abuse and related acts, other general acts of misconduct etc.
Bullying falls under abuse and related acts. Some of the acts stated in the clause are; abusive language, abuse of office and victimisation.
Under victimisation is; threatening and intimidating behaviour, ill-treating, bullying or cruelly or unfairly treating other people.
Sadly, it may be unfortunate that not all examples be started individually. In the case of bullying in the workplace also known as victimisation, the victim is assigned to send their complaint in writing and to state the section of the code of conduct that aligns with the act of bullying that would have occurred.
According to different Codes of Conduct, the perpetrator is asked to respond to allegations and a hearing is held.
From then on the perpetrator is given a verbal warning, 1st and 2nd warning and a final warning followed by dismissal. The process of a perpetrator being called out is lengthy and as an individual being bullied, I expect the bullying to become more intense after a single report that does not warrant dismissal.
Let us just dwell on this example for a clearer picture of workplace bullying:
Kundai has been living in this fear for the past few months as a new employee at a marketing firm. His work is impeccable but however still the centre of Jimmy’s eye. Jimmy was the employee of the month for 3 months in a row, and his unchallenged reign was soon to end which made his eye twitch at the sight of Kundai. To simply compensate, he had to pretend as though there was something wrong with Kundai’s work, and the only way was to intimidate him. His frail body, underweight and geeky glasses aggravated the situation as this became the topic of Jimmy’s song; “you look sick you know!”
“Doesn’t your mother feed you?”
“You’ll fall face forward with those thick glasses.”
“Did your mother’s prostitution behaviour cause your blindness?”
The insults were endless and more personal each time, which made Kundai lose focus as his mother was in fact ill, having been infected by his promiscuous drunkard father.
Often we fail to see through others, through their quietness, through their eating disorders, through their pain and depression because we are not considerate enough to ask; “How are you?” Or to get to know the next person better so that you are more helpful than harmful.
Many individuals go to work because they have to and cannot avoid the bullying but rather have to live through it. This results in serious mental health issues and thus affecting their work quality.
Often as employers or superiors, we believe we are being motivational and are not utilising real leadership skills, which makes employees hesitant to even report such cases.
Workplace bullying must be taken seriously! If you see someone in your workplace being bullied, advise them to report in writing to the HR department if the employee is shy.
If the issue involves supervisor(s) then you may have to involve the Works council to attend to your grievance and assist in making the workplace a safer place for every employee.
As individuals; coworkers, superiors, employers, CEO etc., it is upon us to be better people to the next person. Carefully introspect. If the individual you made a joke about does not laugh, then the joke wasn’t funny and jokes are meant to be funny and not malicious.
If you have journeys about yourself in different instances where your mental health was compromised – do share with us anonymously or as yourself in our email-efuruzw@gmail.com under the title SPEACE (a space for peace)
