Experienced bullying behavior from a very senior member of staff. What to do?

A

Airtight

Registered User
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Recently(last six months), I have experienced bullying behavior at the hands of a very senior member of staff.

What are the actions I should take to deal with this issue, it has recently become unbearable.

If this had happened two years ago, I would have knocked it on the head, but since there are no / very few jobs out there at the moment, this guy has the power, I need the job.

God some of the stuff you wont believe.... this guy is a real shocker.
 
Re: Work Place Bully

Do you have the option of discussing/reporting it to his boss or your Human Resources department?
 
Re: Work Place Bully

Do you have to deal with him regularly?
We had a similar character in our workplace..but I was insulated by one layer.
He made me cry on the telephone once....and I don't cry easily...honest.

Because of the one layer I just managed to avoid him as much as possible and go through my boss for anything.

It's a tough one...but his bullying personality obviously feels empowered by the current climate.

How about getting him to do an appraisal with you?
That way you can nail down any "concerns" he has about you and gather documentation that you are performing well and if his behaviour continues you can use the appraisal as a rope to hang me.

Devious but possibly effective.
 
Re: Work Place Bully

In cases like this it is very important to carefully document every time you feel like you have been bullied - e.g. in a diary, date, time, short description of what happened. This way you'll have a log of evidence. Do you have a HR dept in your company? You should then take it to them. It's a difficult situation to be in and I can understand your predicament, a couple of years ago you would have probably just look for another job.
 
Re: Work Place Bully

One persons understanding of the term bullying may not actually be bullying.
 
Re: Work Place Bully

frash said:
I'm curious now! ...
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So am I; are there any examples you can give, without naming names or compromising your anonymity?
Mommah said:
... We had a similar character in our workplace...but his bullying personality obviously feels empowered by the current climate...
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OP has not given any specifics, so I don't understand how these conclusions can be reached.
Odea said:
One persons understanding ... may not actually be bullying.
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I agree. Without some examples of what OP means by "bullying" we're in the dark as to potential remedies or appropriate actions available to OP.
 
Re: Work Place Bully

My understanding of bullying is that its is defined by how the perpetrator makes the victim feel. So it is how the victim feels that defines it.

Formally the victim needs to let the bully know that their behaviour is upsetting them and ask them to stop. ideally this should be witnessed.

But when dealing with a senior you need to be more carefull and have a good baseline of the senior's formal opinion of you, such as an appraisal.

So that their petty actions can then be framed, and you prevent them from retrofitting them into a performance issue in the light of a bullying accusation.
 
Re: Work Place Bully

Mommah said:
My understanding of bullying is that its is defined by how the perpetrator makes the victim feel. So it is how the victim feels that defines it...
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Your understanding would fall a bit short of a generally accepted definition, IMHO.

Bullying is a behaviour; it is what one person says about, says to or does to another. It may result in a range of feelings for that person, but the feelings are not what define the behaviour as bullying. In order to make a decision as to whether someone is being bullied, the behaviour(s) of the alleged bully must be described and generally there must be more than a single incident.

For example, this is a description of work-place bullying from a 2002 fact sheet by the European Agency for Safety and Health at Work - "Workplace bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed towards an employee, or group of employees, that creates a risk to health and safety." (my bolding) original document here - http://osha.europa.eu/en/publications/factsheets/23
 
Re: Work Place Bully

Are you a member of a union , if so refer the matter to them. If not I fear your next alternative is your HR departmentwho may not be as impartial !
 
Re: Work Place Bully

The key to any action is a detailed dated journal of incidents. List dates, times, what happened, who else was there.

Can you talk to someone informally and do a sideways move to get out of that person's influence?
 
Re: Work Place Bully

Airtight said:
What are the actions I should take to deal with this issue, it has recently become unbearable.
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I think that if you were to provide a little more information on your situation, it would help other posters to target their advice a bit more. For instance,
Large or small company?
* "Very senior staff".. does that mean your direct line manager, or if not, how many layers of management between you and him?
* Does your company have a HR department?
* Does your company have a documented Grievance policy?
* Is your company unionised, and if so, are you in the Union?
* What type of industry... not exactly what industry, but is it an industry that is not too badly affected by the recession, or has it been hit hard?
* Have there been recent cost saving measurements such as pay freezes and/or redundancies?
* Have you had any cause to complain about this individual before?
* What happened 6 mths ago to trigger this bullying behaviour?
* Can you give even one or two examples of the kinds of behaviour?

If you provide even a little more background covering some of those points above, you might get more useful advice from people.

HTH!
 
Re: Work Place Bully

Mommah said:
My understanding of bullying is that its is defined by how the perpetrator makes the victim feel. So it is how the victim feels that defines it.
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If someone screws up and is given out to and “feels” upset/ bullied etc that’s still not bullying. The dressing down may have been completely appropriate and even if it was OTT if it was not part of a pattern it was not bullying.
 
Re: Work Place Bully

Purple said:
If someone screws up and is given out to and “feels” upset/ bullied etc that’s still not bullying. The dressing down may have been completely appropriate and even if it was OTT if it was not part of a pattern it was not bullying.
Click to expand...

To an extent...if its not repetitive but to some people when they are regularly getting dressing downs...that feels like bullying and probably is.

In my experience bullys don't always realise they are bullying, and often don't intend to bully. But that is the impact of their behaviour.

Dishing out negative performance feedback willy-nilly is not appropriate.
It should be part of a formal professional performance review procedure, conducted in private and with increasing frequency if there are issues.

People are hurt when they get negative performance reviews.
But it can be done properly and professionally.

I think I am good in dealing with bullying peers and with subordinates who bully each other. But a bullying supervisor is a much more thorny issue.
 
I agree that people should not be reprimanded in public but if someone keeps screwing up they should be told about it. In the SME sector they are quite probably putting their job and the jobs of those they work with at risk; if being faced with reality hurts their feelings then that's their problem and given that they should probably not be doing the job.
 
OT post which dragged in the subject matter of another closed thread has been deleted (together with some responses)

aj
(mod)
 
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