University Times

“Bullying really doesn’t persist in a culture that doesn’t allow it to be there,” said workplace civility specialist Debra Messer in a recent faculty and staff development workshop, “Creating a Civil Workplace Culture.” Top managers must set the tone when it comes to establishing and maintaining a civil workplace culture, she said.

Using the analogy of a healthy family that takes in a disrespectful teenage relative, Messer, an account manager for LifeSolutions, Pitt’s employee assistance program, said, “It’s not going to take very long before the kids in that family and the parents in that family say, ‘You don’t do that here.’ … It’s the same in the workplace.”

Bullying may not always be intentional, but it is a symptom of other negative things that may be going on in a workplace, she maintained.

“There are ways of behaving, managing and being in the workplace that can be insidious,” she said, adding that people may not realize they’re fostering bullying.

Bullying is an abusive use of power that results in embarrassing, demeaning or intimidating a co-worker. A 2007 Zogby International survey found that 49 percent of people reported either having been bullied (37 percent) or having witnessed others being bullied (12 percent) in the workplace.

The overwhelming majority of bullies — 72 percent — were bosses.

The survey found that 62 percent of employers who were told about a bullying incident either ignored it or took actions that made the situation worse for the person who reported it.

Bullies suffered few consequences while 77 percent of those targeted by bullies left their jobs or were terminated, the survey showed. Often, management supported the bullies: 43 percent were reported to have an executive sponsor, one-third had support from peers and 14 percent had support from their HR department.

Bullying can affect employees’ health, Messer said, adding that 45 percent of those who had been bullied reported health problems. One-third of them said those problems remained a year later.

When workplace bullying occurs, it affects everyone, she said. Managers have to spend time and energy mediating conflicts and calming stressed employees in addition to dealing with disciplinary issues and handling the resulting absenteeism and retention issues.

Bystanders may share the victim’s stress, wondering whether they’ll be next. “It becomes a distraction and a recipe for poor morale,” she said.

“The bottom line is that bullying hurts people,” she said. “It disempowers them — it damages them and their self esteem.”

Civility

“It’s not enough to say we would like to have a civil workplace. … What you really have to ask is how do we behave in ways that will be civil? How do we embody civility in every interaction we have with every single employee, every moment every day?” Messer said.

“What that means for a lot of people is that it requires a paradigm shift,” she said. “People sometimes have to have a totally new way of thinking about how they do business, how they relate to the people that they work with and particularly about how they manage people.”

Some aspects of a civil workplace culture may seem counterintuitive or go against existing management styles — particularly to those who espouse tough management — but workplace cultures that permit bullying do so at their own peril, she said.

Legal precedent

Awareness of the issue is rising. A 2008 decision by Indiana’s Supreme Court set precedent by identifying workplace bullying as “a form of intentional infliction of emotional distress.” In the case Raess v. Doescher, the court awarded $325,000 to a hospital perfusionist who charged that his supervising cardiologist’s derogatory, critical and belittling comments inflicted stress that ultimately left him unable to work.

Prior to that case, employees who were bullied had no legal ground unless they could prove that they were being discriminated against due to race, color, religion, sex or national origin, she said.

“That got people’s attention and set a legal precedent,” Messer said, noting that employers responded to the wake-up call by examining their own policies.

Still, the United States is behind the times, she said. “All Western democracies except the United States have passed legislation against workplace bullying.”

Today, legislators and activists in the United States and Canada are promoting “healthy workplace” legislation (www.healthyworkplacebill.org), which protects employees and employers by providing a clear definition of “health-harming behaviors” and compelling employers to address the issue of workplace bullying.

What is civility?

“Sometimes I get requests from organizations and callers will say, ‘We’ve got a lot of morale problems that I’m dealing with and people aren’t very respectful of one another. Can you come and teach our folks good manners?’” Messer related.

“We’re not talking about having good manners,” she said, noting that civility is much more than that. “If you have a civil culture, good manners and politeness are going to organically evolve out of that culture.”

P.M. Forni, co-founder of the Johns Hopkins civility project, defines civility in part as “a form of gracious goodness,” Messer said.

Interpersonal behaviors that demonstrate respect and “love of thy neighbor,” cooperation and teamwork, all are hallmarks of a civil workplace culture, Messer said.

What promotes civility?

Friendliness — even as simple a gesture as a greeting when passing co-workers in the hallway or asking about their weekend — boosts civility. Respect — ranging from good manners and courtesy to respect for differences — also is important.

Messer said she often finds that employers may say they want to hire for diversity, then with a diverse workforce in place wonder why everyone can’t act the same way.

“Diversity is when you really recognize that people from different backgrounds, different generations, different cultures, different religions, different age groups … are going to think about things differently. They’re going to express themselves differently; they’re going to have different values. You honor that and you’re curious about that and you welcome it because you know it’s going to make your environment richer,” she said.

Flexibility is an important component because it enables employees to get their jobs done in a people-centered environment.

“Yes, we have patients to see, we have students to teach, reports to write, but management is always thinking about how its policies impact on employees: Is this going to make their lives hard? Is this going to be tough for them to do? They question those things and are always concerned about the well-being of the employees,” she said.

Egalitarianism — treating workers the same regardless of their rank — is a big part of a civil workplace, Messer said. It plays out in the kinds of perks that employees receive and the way workers are treated. “You treat the janitor with the same level of respect, courtesy and formalness as you treat the CEO,” she said, admitting that in America’s often-hierarchical society, “that doesn’t always happen.”

Kindness, an attribute not always equated with business, contributes to civility, she said, noting that studies have shown that the best leaders are those with the most kindness, thoughtfulness, consideration and compassion.

Clarity and lack of fear promote civility, she said. In a civil workplace, employees’ roles are clear, communications are open and management is done by empowerment, engagement, incentive and inspiration, rather than by intimidation, she said.

What impedes civility?

“If work is piled on, you’re setting the groundwork for incivility in the workplace,” Messer said.

Constant change — in policies, workload or even technologies — can stress workers out. Change may be inescapable, but empathy can help. “What makes the difference for employees a lot of times is if their managers and supervisors are at least empathic about the fact that change is difficult. They’re sitting down with them and saying, ‘I know this is hard, but how can I help you? What can I do to make this work a little bit better?’”

The value of punitive management

Messer said supervisors ask whether they sometimes need to put the fear of God into subordinates to motivate them.

“Yes, you can use fear as motivation if what you want is an employee who comes to work and punches in, is disengaged, is only going to do the best job when you’re watching them, who’s disgruntled, is unhappy, disloyal and would love to leave any chance they get,” she said.

“So, if you want that kind of employee, go ahead and use fear, because it works.

“But if you want an engaged employee and you want an employee who comes forward with ideas and is loyal to the company and wants to be there … you don’t want to use fear because that doesn’t work. It’s your choice.”

The bottom line

“If you have a workplace that’s not particularly civil … one of the things you’re going to see is disengagement,” she said. Poor morale results in frustrated, discouraged workers who are simply putting in their time. “Disengagement costs billions” in terms of lost productivity, lack of ideas and lack of creativity, Messer said.

“Fear and mistrust cost a lot,” she said, adding that employees may then refuse to admit errors or offer ideas.

Such companies will see higher absenteeism and low retention, she said: “Employees want to leave.” In addition, the bad reputation can spread through the community, making it difficult to attract the best and brightest workers.

Employees in a civil workplace are more engaged, she said. Empowered to speak openly and ask questions, they tend to want to be at work. Such an atmosphere is conducive to less bullying, fewer disciplinary issues and managers who are freed to do their jobs, she said.

What is bullying?

Bullying is an action or behavior that “repeatedly humiliates, undermines or intimidates an employee, causing emotional or physical distress, creating an unpleasant or hostile work environment, disrupting or interfering with the employee’s ability to perform the job,” Messer said. Bullying can include nitpicking, micromanagement, sarcasm and gossip or actions such as sighing, making condescending remarks or eye-rolling.

It also can be done by excluding an employee from meetings or the lunch table or by withholding resources or information. It may rise to public humiliation, embarrassment, physical threats, unreasonable demands or sabotage.

The impact can be serious, causing emotional distress, anxiety, depression, loss of self-esteem, despair, post-traumatic stress disorder or even suicide, she said.

Targets of bullying may retaliate, or may hold their emotions in until they blow up and get fired.

They may be unable to focus or concentrate or may develop physical symptoms. Being bullied may result in social isolation, not only in the workplace, but outside of work, when friends get tired of hearing about it, Messer said.

Sometimes bullies pick on others deliberately and maliciously — such as when employees gossip about or ostracize a co-worker, or when managers mistreat or force out a person they don’t like.

Other times, bullies don’t recognize that’s what they’re doing. They might perceive themselves as merely being tough managers, or act a certain way because they’ve been managed that way themselves.

Am I a bully?

“If you make a mistake, that doesn’t make you a bully,” Messer said. Bullying isn’t an isolated incident but a process that happens over and over and escalates if not dealt with, she said, adding that repetition is a key factor. “So you rolled your eyes at a staff meeting. That’s rude, but it doesn’t make you a bully.”

Seen it?

Typically about 50 percent of employees will admit that they’ve either been bullied in the workplace or that they’ve seen others being bullied. Interestingly, that means that the other 50 percent “are saying ‘I never saw it happen,’” she pointed out.

Witnesses who want to intervene would be wise to proceed with caution, Messer said. As in domestic violence situations, bystanders who get involved may become the object of the abuse. “You’ve got to be careful. The outcomes are not always good,” she warned.

Bystanders can offer support for the victim by saying something like ‘I saw what happened and I feel bad about it,’ Messer said. If they feel comfortable doing so, they might confront the bully — who may not be aware he or she is being a bully — or they could report the situation to someone in higher management.

However, if management is not on board, bullying may continue.  Commitment to a civil workplace culture must come from the top, she said.

Anti-bullying policies

Policies against bullying must be more than mere additions to a company’s anti-harassment policy, Messer said. Anti-bullying policies should include expectations and definitions as well as agreed-upon actions if the policy is violated.

Good policy will apply to all and should provide safeguards for managers and employees alike. It should guarantee no retaliation for those who make good-faith reports, yet include consequences for malicious accusations.

Messer said she’s not in favor of zero-tolerance policies, which she finds “not very civil” because they can make people fearful or cause witch hunts that can trap people who make a mistake.

Zero tolerance for specific behaviors may be warranted, but “give the bully an opportunity to change,” she advised.

Managers may worry that civility will undermine their authority, but civility isn’t meant to take away a manager’s ability to discipline, she said. Instead, managers can be taught how to do so in a civil way — by discussing matters privately rather than humiliating an employee publicly, for instance.

Civility and kindness plus reasonable expectations and accountability equal strong leadership, she said. “Managers need to understand bullying and civility.”

Changing a workplace culture takes time — perhaps years, Messer said. Individuals can do their part by resolving to act more civilly themselves, but management involvement is key.

“It’s going to be hard to change the entire culture if you don’t have top leadership involved.”

The faculty and staff development program, sponsored by the Office of Human Resources, offers a variety of workshops to enhance employees’ professional and personal development. For a schedule, visit www.hr.pitt.edu/orgdev/fsdp.htm.

—Kimberly K. Barlow