Bullying Surveys: Determining the Extent of Bullying In the Workplace
The workplace is fast becoming a breeding ground for bullies. According to some bullying surveys conducted by various organization in the country, this phenomenon is so widespread in the workplace that almost 30 per cent of the people who responded to these surveys reported that they have been bullied by their supervisors and colleagues at work. In fact, some of those who responded to these bullying surveys reported that the bullying they experienced in the workplace forced them to quit their jobs just to get away from the office bullies.
Cases of bullying in the workplace vary from place to place. There are some factories and construction sites that reported very high cases of bullying as compared to upper echelon law firms that reported very few incidents of any form of bullying. If you happen to be the human resource manager of a company and you have been receiving complaints of bullying in the workplace, it would be a good idea for you to investigate the extent of such activities.
Always remember that the unreported cases are usually a lot higher than the reported ones. A lot of people either do not recognize the fact they are already being bullied by their colleagues or they simply do not want to report the incident because they do not want to get anybody into trouble.
Conducting Bullying Surveys
As the human resource officer of the company, you need to know how bad the bullying situation in the workplace is. Acting on the complaints filed by the employees is good but it may not be enough in the long run. Note that for every person who files a complaint for bullying, there are at least two people out there who are too scared or too embarrassed to file a complaint. Many employees do not report cases of bullying to the human resource department because they are embarrassed to be victims of something commonly related to a school playground.
To address the problem of bullying in the workplace, you must have a clear picture of the extent of bullying. The best way to assess the situation is to conduct anonymous bullying surveys in the company. The good things about conducting this type of bullying surveys is that the employees will be able express themselves better. According to studies, people are better able to talk about their experience during this type of anonymous surveys as opposed to meetings and emails.
