A policy on appropriate workplace behaviour and a procedure for dealing with breaches of this are, of course, essential.  Unfortunately, such policies and procedures don’t automatically give managers and workers the skills to deal with inapropriate workplace behaviour and prevent poor working relationships.

Bullying and harassment policies and procedures need to be more than part of the regular review cycle.  They should be developed and reviewed with meaningful staff involvement and their effectiveness measured against the number of complaints, together with feedback and analysis of how incidents have been handled.

Also vital to the effectiveness of bullying and harassment policies and procedures is training for managers to:

• recognise and resolve unhealthy conflict
• create a clear understanding of personal and professional boundaries
• deal with unecessary conflict quickly and effectively
• handle formal procedrues confidently and efficiently

Managers feel pressurised to produce results, meet targets and deliver quality services.  Motivating staff, responsible management and developing a healthy workplace can easily fall off the action plan. However, investing time to create a working environment where concerns can be raised as early as possible is vital to a healthy working environment, crucial in today’s economic climate and totally achievable in any organisation.

How to minimise allegations of bullying in your workplace

• create a common understanding of the behaviour that is acceptable in your workplace
• create an environment were issues can be raised as early as possible
• train workers on how to raise issues, receive and give constructive feedback and work together to solve problems
• managers are able to spot unnecessary conflict in their teams and have the skills to deal with interpersonal issues early and effectively

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In this case the individuals were elected public servants, not employees, and the case was pursued through legal channels. It is interesting to consider possible approaches to dealing with this case had the individuals been employees.

Would mediation or counselling have been appropriate?

In the course of my work I interview all types of employee about their experiences of workplace behaviour.  The disruption caused by the misuse of the term “bully” is an ongoing theme.

Misuse of the term “bully” can have a devastating effect on the organisation, individual workers and teams:

* A distraction from daily business
* Complex and time consuming investigations
* The impact of the decisions taken
* Rising levels of work related stress and high absence are just some examples.

Creating a workplace where workers are skilled and confident to raise their concerns early and informally, as well as improving their knowledge and understanding of the phrase “bullying at work” can go a long way towards preventing the real life scenario below:

“He made a wordy complaint in writing that I had bullied him. The company commissioned an investigation by an independent third party and they found no evidence whatsoever to support his allegations.

I had been responsible for advising his line manger on senior management’s decision.  Basically, the guy was frustrated with the message and decided to vent this by accusing me, the messenger, of bullying. I had two meetings with this guy, no email or other correspondence, no telephone calls or personal contact and he accused me of bullying him.

I was really stressed out during the investigation, it’s not pleasant to be accused unfairly like that.  I think I was the one being bullied for doing my job.”

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Here is an article written by Coreen Nugent on this theme in June 2009, titled “Workplace bullying: Top tips for tackling the problem” – click on the image :