ResolutionsRTK

The Public Face of Bullying

Suzi Jotwani
General Manager
Develop Resolve

The Café Vamp case, successfully prosecuted by WorkSafe, made headlines
in Australia. People everywhere responded with dismay and disgust to the story of persistent physical and emotional bullying that eventually resulted in Brodie Panlock taking her own life. The business owner
and three senior employees were found guilty of ‘systematically bullying’ Brodie.
The employees were fined a total of $115,000, and the café owner $220,000.
All of them now carry criminal convictions, and can be clearly recognised from the
front page photos and nightly news footage in the media.

While it is unusual for a case to be successfully prosecuted, we can be pretty confident that there are other cases as potentially serious in the Victorian workplace. It can be easy to imagine, looking at the severity of this case, that it is unique to this particular workplace; a one-off circumstance, something that we think doesn’t happen where we work.

Turning the spotlight on your workplace

Let us not assume that it was patently obvious from the beginning that what these people were doing was bullying. What occurred at Café Vamp happened over a period of time, and it was an insidious and ‘poisonous’ environment that developed. At each point in this case there were missed opportunities to stop what was occurring.

People who are being bullied may not necessarily understand that what they are experiencing is bullying. They may continue to come to work as usual and it may not be obvious to others how it is affecting them. They may not know how to raise the issue or don’t feel safe to raise the issue – particularly if their perception is that senior people are observing what is happening and doing nothing about it. Bullies can have a good ‘nose’ for a target who is vulnerable.

When it comes to workplace bullying, we need to avoid being like the frog in a pot of cold water that is heating up on the stove, that doesn’t sense the danger and jump out because the water heats to boiling so gradually. Just like the frog, we may ignore or overlook a situation that we are witnessing or experiencing, because the pattern may emerge gradually, and a single incident may seem relatively insignificant.

How do you know your workplace is safe?

Effectively dealing with bullying requires more than a good policy and awareness training. Employees respond to what they see demonstrated by the leaders in the organisation. Does your organisation demonstrate a clear, responsive culture grounded in natural justice when addressing bullying complaints?

Do people know what to look for and what to do if they see something that concerns them? Everyone in your organisation should be able to recognise bullying behaviour (and know the difference between bullying and performance management), and feel enabled to step forward and take appropriate steps if they notice the water ‘heating up’.

Are your staff equipped at a personal level? In addition to having access to policies and awareness about bullying legislation, it is important to continually educate staff in critical communication skills to understand behavioural styles, healthy assertiveness, to have courageous conversations and give appropriate feedback.

No matter how big or small your business, policies, awareness, training, and most importantly, instant responses to bullying behaviours are essential to ensure that issues are recognised and sorted out promptly.

Five basic steps to compliance with bullying guidelines

Relevant government authorities developed guidelines for employers to deal with bullying. The minimum steps employers need to take, to comply with these guidelines are summarised below.

1. Raise awareness and consult with employees

Through consultation, communication forums, awareness sessions, and newsletter articles, encourage the discussion and input into policy development. It is especially recommended to conduct awareness sessions for the executives, even Boards or Councils, and the senior management teams.

2. Develop policy

Develop specific policies to prevent bullying and occupational violence in the workplace. These need to clearly state that what sorts of behaviours your organisations will not tolerate. If you already have similar statements about sexual harassment, discrimination or harassment, it is recommended to update all of these policy documents and possibly merge them into a suite of employee relations policy so that it is easily accessible.

3. Develop issue resolution process and procedure

An essential part of the policy is to encourage reporting of incidents of inappropriate behaviours. It is likely that as the awareness increases so will the reports. It is vital to have a clear and efficient process for dealing with the grievances employees might report. Work out who they should be reported to, who will investigate and in what timeframes, what actions will take place if the claims are substantiated, and what support systems will be in place such as Employee Assistance Programs.

4. Communicate to all staff

As the policy and issue resolution process are developed, all staff need to be made aware of the implications for their behaviours. Each team needs to be encouraged to monitor the situation and develop better working relationships, by upholding the universal values most people expect in the workplace – to be treated with respect and dignity.

5. Train all managers and team leaders

While all employees need to be aware of the policy, managers and supervisors need to have better skills in dealing with the claims of bullying as they arise. They also need to constantly improve their skills in managing people so as to create workplaces where bullying is not tolerated. They need greater awareness of how their management styles impact on teams.

Five further steps to create a bully-free culture

Compliance with the health and safety guidelines can be relatively easily reached if the above steps are followed. If your policies and procedures are in place and staff trained, there is more work to be done if you would like your workplace to become a bully-free zone. Changing attitudes and cultures takes more effort and commitment on the part of the leaders, but it is a possible goal to strive towards. Here are some further recommendations for those employers wishing to make serious inroads into creating such cultures. They assume that the basic five steps have been accomplished.

6. Analyse your culture

Gain an understanding of what your organisation is really like under the surface, using any one of many available cultural measures, surveys, questionnaires, informal chats, or focus groups facilitated by professionals. Such methods can provide much more than a employee opinion survey. It can provide rich information about the actual beliefs and values of your organisation (not just the written ones in the company corporate plans).

7. Set a vision for a high performance organisation with harmonious relationships

Effectiveness depends on good teamwork and therefore on employee relations. Do not settle for economic results that compromise people outcomes. Such a vision needs to be communicated often and lead to specific initiatives that can be measured by regular cultural analysis.

8. Develop department or team-based attitudinal change programs

Encourage each team to develop initiatives aimed towards changing the workplace culture that matches such a vision. These could include further communication and awareness programs or enhanced and agreed processes for dealing with the issues as they arise within the teams. It is possible, with the regular targeted team activities, to inoculate the members against negative conflict, so that issues are dealt with appropriately before they become difficult.

9. Systematically manage psychological risks

Bullying behaviours are essentially psychological hazards. It is possible to regularly monitor psychological risks in the organisation through specific audits or by including them in the mainstream Occupational Health and Safety hazard identification checklists. Some OHS jurisdictions, including Victoria, already stipulate that psychological health must be managed with the same rigour as the physical ones. Manage each risk by developing appropriate action plans which may lead to further training of managers. Ensure that reports of people-related risks, safety and other people outcomes are presented to the executive/senior managers. To make this task of easier for employers, there are a range of web-based tools such as psychological hazard checklists and employee opinion surveys that not only measure the organisation’s climate but also the impact of various hazards on employee well-being.

10. Review, learn and innovate

Evaluate the effectiveness of the intervention programs and revisit the cultural issues on a regular basis, developing new strategies and initiatives in this area linking them to the overall human resources corporate plan.

Café Vamp is a tragic reminder for us all

Relatively rarely do bullying cases so dramatically achieve public attention in the way that the Café Vamp case has. Rarer still do we see the bullies so publicly pilloried. No doubt WorkSafe will be looking to maintain momentum around prosecutions of serious bullying.

Employers that address issues diligently and work consistently on improving the culture are less likely to worry when they hear such stories, having put in place measures that manage the risk of harm in their workplace. But rather than resting on our laurels, the Café Vamp case is a tragic reminder that bullying can happen under our noses, and can ruin lives.

Click here for an outline of ResolutionsRTK workplace behaviour program for managers.

Click here for an outline of ResolutionsRTK workplace behaviour program for staff.