How to fight bullying the workplace?

Workplace bullying is repeated mistreatment and a form of “abusive conduct.”. Bullying is a non-physical form of workplace violence. Our principal concern is the national prevalence of abusive conduct.

You think that bullying happens only to teenagers at high school, but many people carry the high school attitude with them to the workplace and you might have survived the bully in the school to find yourself in the face of the same aggressive behaviors with the same harmful effects now that you are older and more conscious of it.

In the US : 30% of adults suffer abusive conduct at work, another 19% witness it, 49% are affected by it, and 66% are aware that workplace bullying happens.

I started a new job two months ago, after one week one of my supervisors started throwing passive aggressive comments about my work, then these comments transformed to be more and more personal. The feedback from other colleagues was “that is a normal phase and that he does it with every new guy until another comes”.

The signs of being under bullying came quickly to my mind. Everyone should be aware because it might be happening to you. These can include feeling isolated, anxious, or depressed; losing confidence; or having trouble sleeping.” I had all those symptoms. I would find everybody laughing and giggling while I worked silently.

Upon careful reading, here are a few things you can do if you’re being bullied at work.

First, try to talk to the person who is bullying you.

This can be difficult, but it may help to resolve the issue. If this doesn’t work, or if you don’t feel comfortable talking to the person, you can talk to your supervisor or HR department. They may help you resolve the issue or protect you from further harassment. This didn’t work for me, it only backfired. I figured out later that the bully was a close friend with the boss and won’t do anything against him, regardless of what he does!

You can also file an official complaint to the association related to your work. I didn’t do this in my work yet!, for most supervisors that would be like starting a war and I’m trying to avoid that as possible.

Second, it’s very important to stand up for yourself

Do not let the bully get away with it. Bullying can make you feel horrible, but you don’t have to put up with it. There are people who can help you and there are ways to fight back. That helped a lot, many colleagues who worked in the same company for a longer period. Started standing up to him. This removed all the blame that could fall upon me when I stood up for myself.

But you need to remember that bullies can be manipulative and try to use you speaking up as an opportunity to bully you more.

Third, it’s important to reach out for help.

Talk to someone you trust about what’s going on. This could be a friend, family member, therapist, or counselor. They can offer support and help you develop a plan to deal with the bullying. That helped me when I was drained.

A friend advised me to document the bullying behaviour. This will help you identify patterns and give you evidence to support your claims. After I started doing this, the bullying behaviors dropped, especially that I made it very clear.

Doing the above pointed out steps helped a lot in fighting and relieving the offensive actions and decreasing their frequency. But one need to remember that those steps could come at a price, the price to stop bullying is still paid overwhelmingly by targets themselves. Through no fault of their own, they have a 67% risk of losing a job they once loved. Not only are targets terminated (12%), constructively discharged (17%) (which is made to look like a voluntary quit), convinced to quit to save their mental and physical health, but 15% of them transfer.

Do you have any other ideas? what would you do in my place?