Workplace Bullying

Workplace bullying: a global overview

Ellen Cobb

Workplace bullying is a global problem affecting all professions and sectors. This overview examines the range of legislation already in place to address bullying as well as laws we can expect to see enacted in the near future.

How to survive a toxic workplace

Linnda Durrée

Like anything poisonous, a toxic workplace can quickly make you sick. So is your workplace toxic? What about your boss or your co-workers? And if you think you're caught in a toxic workplace, what can you do about it?

Aggressive managers get ahead faster

Brian Amble

Aggressive managers who blame others when things go wrong are more likely to get promoted than managers who feel guilty and accept responsibility for failure.

This is who I am - deal with it

Dan Bobinski

Before we start to pick holes in others, we need to look at ourselves first. That's why managers whose attitude is, 'this is who I am, deal with it' are so toxic, and why the higher up the ladder they climb, the worse the fall-out can be.

When should you quit a toxic company?

Linnda Durrée

Do you sacrifice your health, ethics and conscience by tolerating a toxic workplace? It's just not worth it. As Janis Joplin said, 'don't compromise yourself. It's all you've got.'

What can be done about bullies at work?

Manfred Kets De Vries

Workplace bullying is a silent epidemic that causes a host of psychological and physical health problems. So why is addressing the problem and stamping out bullying such an uphill battle for everyone involved?

The bad influence of aggressive bosses

Manfred Kets De Vries

Identifying with an aggressor is a basic strategy for human survival. But in the workplace, such behaviour is destructive and needs to be called out.

What your company can learn from the Miami Dolphins

Patrick Proctor

The Miami Dolphins' clumsy response to incendiary harassment and bullying allegations is a lesson for every organization in how not to handle similar conflict situations and a reminder; too, of what you risk if you ignore workplace bullying.

Silent bullying on remote teams

Wayne Turmel

We don't hear much about negative team behavior in remote teams because it seldom takes the form of overt bullying. Sure, people may berate each other on conference calls, but often the most pervasive and insidious behavior is aggressive, purposeful and destructive silence.

Kissing up, kicking down

Max McKeown

Kowtowing to bullies is both morally and pragmatically wrong, as the pitiful decisions made by 'kiss up, kick down' managers keep proving again, and again, and again.

Beware the corporate psycho

Brian Amble

Have you ever secretly thought that a colleague – or even your boss – behaves like a psychopath? Well you may well be right.

Violence at work has reached epidemic levels

Brian Amble

Violence at work, ranging from bullying to sexual harassment and even murder, has reached epidemic levels in some countries, according to a new report by the International Labour Organisation.

Employers failing to deal with bullies

Brian Amble

Bullies use a wide range of subtle tactics and behaviour to intimidate colleagues at work, but victims' torment is being made worse by endless rounds of organisational change as well as ineffective action by employers.

Help me confront my bullying boss

Patricia Soldati

Anita's CEO is an arrogant bully who makes life for most of her staff a living hell. Staff turonover is sky high, yet no-one seems able or willing to deal with her. So short of quitting herself, is there anything Anita can do?

more podcasts

Recent Podcasts

more podcasts

More on Workplace Bullying

Why fear rules the workplace

Chetan Dhruve

What is it that makes millions of people around the world, regardless of national culture, afraid of their bosses? The answer is that our workplaces are unwittingly designed to produce fear - and because all bosses are, by definition, dictators.

Psychopaths & sycophants

Max McKeown

Far too many organisations are stuffed with sycophants prepared to overlook anything shady, illegal, or unethical as long as they are getting to hang around and share some power. Even if that means pandering to a corporate psychopath.

Growing past the tough-guy attitude

Dan Bobinski

Some people are never taught how to make good choices. Either they are directed to make choices that others want them to make, or they are forced to make instinctive choices in the face of weak or absent significant relationships.

Where discernment ends and bullying begins

James Carton

James Carton asks if the harsh put-down merely deters sensitive individuals, rather than the less talented. It is possible to uphold standards while remaining civil.

More Good Stuff

Dominance could kill you

23 Mar 2015

If you think that that aggressive, competitive behaviour is the way to get ahead, think again. Because according to new research, a hostile-dominant personality increases the risk of heart disease and could shorten your life.

Half of women report harassment at work

02 Apr 2014

Half of women claim they have experienced bullying or harassment at work over the past three years, according to a survey of 25,000 women, with much of this harassment coming from other women. And the problem extends right up to board level.

Entitlement-minded staff more likely to accuse their boss of abuse

18 Sep 2013

Employees who exhibit signs of 'psychological entitlement' - an unjustified sense of their own importance and ability - are more likely to say that their bosses are abusive than co-workers who don't share the same mindset, new research has found.

Cultural differences and workplace bullying

27 Jun 2013

Culture differences means that the country a company is based in has a direct effect on how much workplace bullying is accepted and where behavioural lines are drawn, new research has found.

Rethinking how you motivate others

29 Sep 2010

If you try to motivate people through insults and intimidation, you may want to think about the ripple effects of your actions. In fact, if you don't care that your negative words might affect people negatively, then I suggest you shouldn't be a manager.

Suffering in silence

08 Dec 2009

We all wish that organisations could – or would – root out asshole bosses, the reality is often very different. Bit does that mean that your only choice when faced with a boss from hell is to suffer in silence?

Feelings of inadequacy fuel bullying

20 Oct 2009

In a new slant on the perennial problem of bullying bosses, US psychologists have found that managers who feel out of their depth in their roles are more likely to bully their subordinates.

Beating a bullying boss

06 May 2009

The Working Week podcast hits a milestone this week as we post the 100th edition of Wayne Turmel's consistently excellent look at the world of work in all its guises. And for the 100th show, we tackle the issue that is the most common subject of questions sent to our advice clinic - the perennial scourge of bullying bosses.

Women bullying women

26 Feb 2009

Women-on-women harassment in the workplace may sound funny to some, or even be the source of jokes, but it's hardly a laughing matter. In fact, trauma (physical and mental) among women in the workplace is becoming a serious problem.

When your boss hates you

20 Jan 2009

Imagine that you walk into your bosses' office and ask why it is that he or she seems to be making your life so difficult. Now imagine that rather than mincing their words, your boss simply says that he or she is trying to force you to quit. How do you deal with that?

Can bullies really change?

16 Dec 2008

Most of us, regardless of our age, can still remember the bully at school in our adolescent years. In fact, it probably wouldn't surprise you to learn that he probably still is a bully, even though he now wears a tie to work and has an MBA.

How do you feel about your boss?

01 Dec 2008

I write a lot about employees who hate their bosses, but It turns out that someone has actually done an academic study about employees and their feelings toward their bosses.

How to become the world's worst boss

08 Oct 2008

If the tough economic times have given you cause to become angry and you feel justified in taking that anger out on your employees, I've dug out a great article for you that will help you reach the pinnacle of 'bad boss-ness.'

Hit the bullies where it hurts

23 Sep 2008

Workplace bullying is a problem that never seems to go away whatever we try to do to eradicate it. So maybe hitting perpetrators in the pocket might have some effect.

Why work is like school

16 Sep 2008

Sometimes the way things go on at work is enough to makew you wonder whether you're really still in high school.

Don't use the downturn as an excuse to behave like a jerk

11 Sep 2008

With the economy as bad as it is in the United States and despite a rising unemployment rate, there are still plenty of people who feel their boss is so bad they have to leave their current job.