Bullying is often thought of as going to school, but did you know that 1 in 10 employees are victims of bullying at work? Bullying falls under "psychosocial workload" according to the Occupational Health and Safety Act (Chapter 1, Article 1). The Civil Code also protects the employee against bullying behavior. According to Article 7:658, the employer has a duty of care for the safety of the working environment.

It is estimated that bullying costs 4 million additional days of absenteeism and €900 million in lost wages. The consequences of bullying vary from employee to employee, but bullying can be sickening and can lead to long-term absenteeism. These employees are then not only sick more often and for long periods of time, but also become unmotivated and experience little workplace fun, this causes them to perform less well. Your employee will also be less able to concentrate at work because of his or her worries, this also creates a higher risk of a workplace accident. In addition, you also run the risk of your employee looking for another job. Time to change this!

Features

Characteristics of workplace bullying are repeated:

• • Mocking, criticizing or reprimanding
  • Nonverbal gestures and facial expressions
  • Imitate
  • Scolding
  • Exclude or ignore
  • Making the job difficult (being given nonsensical work, being given incorrect information to do the job properly, or not being informed).
  • Gossip
  • Threat
  • Being physically attacked

Bullying involves structural behavior; it is not a one-off incident or a lame joke. As a supervisor, it is always good to discreetly inquire from colleagues on the team about their experiences and observations as well.

What can you do now as an organization against workplace bullying?

Make clear agreements and document them in a code of conduct and associated policy against undesirable behavior. The code of conduct states what is acceptable behavior and what is not. Appoint a confidential advisor; this can be an internal or an external confidential advisor. In addition, it is important that this is not only described, but also how it is ensured in the company. Finally, the measures and consequences of bullying should be defined.
Next, the policy and code of conduct should be propagated throughout the organization.

It makes sense for managers to be trained on how to recognize bullying behavior in the workplace and learn how to deal with it. Some tips here include:

• Take the bullied employee seriously. It is important that the employee feels supported and heard and feels that he is not alone. Indeed, this will minimize consequences as much as possible.
• Listen carefully and ask yourself what you can do and what needs help.
• Ask the employee where the need is and what the employee believes would be an appropriate solution?
• Also inquire of the employee what he or she has already done to solve the problem?
• Consider aftercare; one or more conversations are not enough. Assess together whether the problem has been sufficiently resolved.

Need help?

The labour experts of Puls are specialists when it comes to the sustainable employability of your staff. The Occupational Assessor from Puls have conversations with both your employee and you. The Occupational Assessor translates his or her findings into concrete tools and solutions to prevent and remedy absenteeism as much as possible. Feel free to contact us and we will be happy to think along with you to create a pleasant working environment for everyone.