The Other Elephant in the Room
Everyone talks about a bully being the elephant in the room. But there’s a bigger one – what flummoxes most people is seeing a particular person, usually well known for bullying and who causes havoc and discontent, yet the organisation do nothing about it. We’ve all seen that, right?

Often those affected leave the business, losing their job while the cause of it stays. If the one affected chooses to stay they usually take more sick leave, are less engaged, not as productive and make more mistakes. The career and health detriment is on those who seem to do nothing wrong but be in the wrong place at the wrong time. And the organisation lose out all ways.

If that’s true, why do nothing? Is the person too powerful and seen as untouchable? Is no one brave enough (or supported enough) to deal with the person and situation? Or is it that organisations genuinely don’t have a clue what to do?

Some people are simply unaware of their behaviour and its impact on others. Some people once aware can change, others can’t or won’t. And often the real cause is that the culture supports bullying and allows it to flourish. Which one resonates in your organisation?

We deal with both transforming individuals and organisational culture with dignity and have created a simple flowchart showing the options and process of dealing with someone who bullies.

I’d love to talk it through with any HR practitioner or leader looking for a way to manage bullying in their organisation. Alternatively it can be presented to local HR groups so if you’re looking for an interesting topic that will inspire and generate ideas and discussion please let us know.

Jo Brown
Director/Consultant
DignityWorks