We all know what bullying is, but in the news lately, it always involves children at school. But, what about adults? Is workplace bullying actually a thing? Can you do anything about it as an employee? What defines bullying?

What Is Workplace Bullying?

According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, bullying in your place of work revolves around abusive conduct. This conduct can be categorized into; verbal, threats, intimidation and of course humiliation. These acts prevent the employee from getting their work done – even if it’s not directly. If it’s indirect; the employee is scared to come to work, scared to be around that person, etc this is also included.

A bully in the workplace doesn’t always include a boss. It might include a manager, supervisor, customer or even a vendor.

When Does Bullying Become Illegal?

As of right now, there are no laws against workplace bullying, unfortunately. Though a few states have tried to pass anti-bullying laws, no law has been passed yet. Just because there isn’t a law though, doesn’t make it right.

Regular bullying in the workplace becomes illegal when it comes to state laws that prohibit discrimination or harassment in a place of work. These discrimination and harassment laws protect you, the employee, against things like harassment that is based on sexual orientation, religion, sex, race, creed, disability, etc. If a person is basing the bullying on one of these characteristics – it could qualify as harassment that is illegal!

Because of these characteristics, most workplace bullying is proved to be harassment.

For example, if your boss bullies just women or states things that are directed towards only women, but never picks on the men this could be a sex-based claim.

California Trains Managers On Abusive Conduct

California recently became the very first state that requires larger businesses, companies, and corporations – with more than 50 employees, to train managers and supervisors on how to prevent bullying and abusive conduct at work.

While the training is a great place to start, it still does not make abusive conduct illegal and still does not allow you to sue your boss because of general abuse.

What Should I Do Now?

If workplace bullying is not against the law, what other options do you have? Well, for one, you should be reporting it to the HR department. Even though it’s not illegal, it’s really in your boss’s best interest to be aware of and stop workplace bullying.

Bullying in the workplace can cause so many issues; poor performance, the employee not showing up for work, poor morale in the workplace and decreased production. All in all workplace bullying does NOT benefit a company!

Always make sure that you keep notes about who is bullying you, what they said when it happened and what type of effects it had on you. If you missed work because of it or were sick because of the stress or started having medical issues because of the bullying – write it all down for your records.

If it does not stop or gets worse and you decide to take action, you will have proof of what was going on. If your boss does not take it seriously, it’s your right to talk to a lawyer. It should be noted, however, that you have only 180 days to file a complaint. After those 180 days is up, that’s it. You won’t get another chance unless it happens again.

 

 

 

Photo Credit: Shutterstock Dusan Petkovic/ fizkes/ r.classen