Workplace Violence: Managing The Continuum from Incivility to Homicide

1. Workplace Violence: Managing The Continuum from Incivility to Homicide By: Kathy Gabriel

2. What is Workplace Violence? Any act or threat of physical violence, harassment, intimidation, or other threatening or disruptive behavior that occurs at the work site, ranging from threats and verbal abuse to physical assaults and even homicide

3. Range of Negative Interpersonal Behavior in the Workplace Gary Namie and Ruth F. Namie, The Bully-Free Workplace (2011)

4. What is Workplace Bullying? • repeated • health-harming mistreatment • verbal abuse • physical or nonverbal behaviors that are threatening, intimidating, or humiliating • work sabotage • interference with production • exploitation of a vulnerability • a combination of one or more of the above

5. Common Terms for Workplace Bullying • incivility • disrespect • dealing with difficult people • personality conflict • negative conduct • ill treatment • office politics

6. Bullying is Psychological Workplace Violence Other terms for Workplace Bullying: • psychological violence • psychological harassment • personal harassment • 'status-blind' harassment • mobbing • emotional abuse at work

7. Bullying ≠ Hostile Work Environment Hostile work environment is rooted in the targeting of protected characteristics such as gender, age, race, or disability  Bullying may be rooted simply in fear – the bully seeing the target as a threat to his/her authority because of the target’s competence and personable qualities

8. Bullying Still Legal in the U.S. Harassment and Discrimination are actionable. No legal cause of action of simple “bullying”

9. Bullying Tactics • Falsely accuse someone of “errors” not actually made • Stare, glare, be nonverbally intimidating and show clear signs of hostility • Discount the person’s thoughts or feelings (“Oh, that’s silly”) in meetings • Use the “silent treatment” to “ice out” and ostracize others • Exhibit presumably uncontrollable mood swings in front of the group • Make up rules on the fly that even the bully did not follow • Disregard satisfactory or exemplary quality of completed work despite evidence • Harshly and constantly criticize having a different “standard” for the target • Start, or fail to stop, destructive rumors or gossip about the person • Encourage others to turn against the person being tormented • Single out and isolate one person from coworkers, either socially or physically • Publicly display “gross,” undignified (but not illegal) behavior • Yell, scream, or throw tantrums in front of other to humiliate a person • Steal credit for work done by others • Abuse the evaluation process by lying about the target’s performance

10. Bullying Tactics: The NAQ Checklist Once a week, for six months continuously, two or more apply: • Withheld information that affected the target’s performance • Target ordered to do work below target’s level of competence • Remind target repeatedly of errors and mistakes • Humiliate or ridicule target in connection with target’s work • Target receives hints or signals from others that target should quit his/her job • Target had key tasks removed and replaced with trivial, unpleasant tasks • False allegations were made against target • Target subjected to excessive teasing and sarcasm • Target was shouted at or targeted with spontaneous anger or rage

11. Impact of Workplace Bullying Unaddressed bullying results in: • High turnover rates • Exposure of organization to the risk of violence, “office rage” or workers “going postal” • Exposure of the organization to litigation risks • Rise of disability costs • Presenteeism/Absenteeism • Intangible costs for the employer such as diminished reputation, loss of employee morale, and disengaged workforce

12. What Managers Can Do • Recognize that bullying may be occurring • Fact-finding: Listen to reports of bullying from the lower ranks and search for corroboration • Intervene when possible • Create explicit policy addressing unacceptable behavior • Across-the-board enforcement – from executives to managers to rank and file

13. Chopourian v. Catholic Healthcare: An Expensive Lesson

14. Conclusion • Management is responsible for leading a bully-free workplace. • Company culture must value persons, not simply their skills and abilities • Competent and empathetic leaders can prevent incivility from devolving into bullying which may explode into workplace violence (such as suicides or homicides)