Bullying in the workplace is an ever-present problem, and facility managers are not immune to seeing issues in their departments.
“The facility manager’s responsibility is that they need to control the workplace environment, or the bullies will control it for them,” declares Dr. Gary Namie, a social psychologist and, along with his wife Ruth, the founder of the Workplace Bullying Institute in Clarkston, Washington.
“I worry more in a blue-collar environment because it’s about interpersonal dominance, someone trying to dominate somebody else and define their reality for them. This is very, very common. We do national surveys, and 32 percent of workers say it happens to them.”
Given those numbers, managers need to be proactive.
“If you wait until the complaints come to you, it’s going to be months or years after the campaign of intimidation and humiliation began,” Namie says.
Good managers also know their people and can better sense when something is not right.
“How do you know this is going on? First of all, as a manager you should know your people well enough to detect changes in their emotional state,” Namie says. “If somebody is happy-go-lucky, a hard worker, a happy soul, and suddenly becomes morose, you’ve got to see that as a sign. That means you’ve got to know them well enough to pick up on the subtle. You don’t go up to them and say, ‘What the heck is wrong with you?’ But you go up to them and say, ‘Is something going on in your life? I’ve noticed some changes, and I’m here to help.’”
Namie, whose 22-hour training program is called the Workplace Bullying University, says that the two primary areas of concentration are to raise awareness and condemn bullying.
“Make no mistake, a lot of management training inadvertently showcases, features and values bullying as a technique and a style,” he explains. “The training has to point out that highly aggressive people are destructive people. They act as predators. So there needs to be a little bit about why bullies bully and to understand them, but also to condemn them because people in this position are no good for the organization.”
From the outset it must be made clear why bullies bully, who they are, and how organizational factors are more predictive than personality, Namie says. “That’s important. But then the valuation is, ‘This must be condemned. This is not good. This is unacceptable.’”
The second major piece of any training course should target all the other employees and help them recognize the signs of emotional abuse and learn about the health risks that are the consequences of bullying.
“The onset of injuries is slow, but they’re very damaging,” Namie points out. “The quicker you recognize it, the quicker you avert health harm. That’s why you need the training. The most important part of the training is recognition of what’s happening to you, and again, the declaration by the employer that this is unacceptable.”
Howard Riell is a freelancer based in Henderson, Nevada.
