Workplace bullying vs. workplace harassment

- Bullying is everywhere, in schools, in politics, and in the workplace. Workplace bullying is repeated abuse that creates a psychological power imbalance between bullies and targets. This imbalance in power makes it difficult, if not impossible, for targets to stand up for themselves. As a result, targets and witnesses both develop psychological problems, including stress, anxiety, and depression. And this results in physical problems such as headaches, heart problems, lack of sleep, and much more. Of course, people who are afraid of their boss or coworker aren't working at max capacity, and their work productivity and quality of work suffer. Customer service, job satisfaction, company loyalty, and internal relationships also suffer. Bullying is quite insidious and most often begins with a simple slight or rude email. There's an initial incident of incivility, and no one speaks up. The silence sends the message that this behavior is okay. Over time, the behaviors become more and more frequent and more and more aggressive. Eventually, targets and witnesses come to realize that this bully has psychological power and that they feel helpless to stop the behavior, unless of course you have a powerful, positive culture in place. Then people feel free to speak up. Now, you might be wondering, what's the difference between bullying and harassment? The answer is nothing. Check out the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission's website and take a look at the definition of harassment. It's unwelcome conduct where enduring the offensive conduct becomes a condition of continued employment, or the conduct is severe or pervasive enough to create a work environment that a reasonable person would consider intimidating, hostile, or abusive. That describes workplace bullying. However, the law differentiates between the two when you add in the part about race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, disability, or genetic information. Bullying is unlawful if you bully someone based on one or more of these protected characteristics. The law defines that type of bullying as harassment. Conflict occurs when two people disagree, but both feel able to use their voice. Conflict can escalate to bullying, though, when one person's behavior becomes so aggressive that the other person feels their voice is squashed out. Now, I have to wonder, are you watching this course because you're wondering if bullying exists in your organization? If it does, you've got some people feeling really damaged, even abused at work, and it's time to put a stop to it.