The Daily Post has launched a campaign to take a stand against bullying in our city. Stop The Hate will run over the next few weeks and will look at bullying, bullies and their victims. Today we look at workplace bullying.
IF YOU think you are being bullied in the workplace, keep a diary of the incidents, see if there is a pattern and bring it to your employer's attention.
From there, follow up any discussion with a formal letter detailing what was discussed and proposed actions.
The Department of Labour says this will give you valuable support if the bullying continues.
According to a poll on The Daily Post website, 80 per cent of people recognised bullying happened in their workplace. Of 35 people who responded, the answers of about 27 showed workplace bullying was alive in Rotorua. According to the poll, 37 per cent of respondents said bullying happened in their workplace "only now and again" while 34 per cent said "it happens daily". Eight per cent of respondents said they were bullied themselves and 2 per cent said they were the bully at their workplace.
The department recommends people who believe they are being bullied should record the incidents and show their employer.
Bullying can occur at all levels.
The department's website says bullying may not be obvious and the recipient may think it's normal behaviour for the workplace.
In many cases, the victim can become isolated and is not supported by colleagues.
This is what one Rotorua man faces at work every day. Others have been forced to leave their jobs.
A Rotorua woman contacted The Daily Post to share her concerns about workplace bullying after reading about our anti-bullying campaign. She said her husband was constantly being bullied at his workplace and he was starting to hate going to work.
He was even starting to rethink his career and was considering quitting in his job - just as his bullies had suggested.
She did not want to identify her husband or reveal his workplace but said her husband was constantly being put down by his colleagues.
He was often told he was too old for his job, was "over it", told to go and look for another job somewhere else and excluded from activities.
"He doesn't really enjoy going to work, just knowing what they [his work colleagues] think of him.
"I've seen a change in him."
She said the workplace bullying her husband was suffering was making his life "miserable".
Although she said his bullying wasn't the traditional type of physical abuse, it was a form of bullying which was making a huge impact on his life.
"It [bullying] comes in all different shapes and forms."
New workplace research shows the incidence of non-managerial employees observing workplace bullying in New Zealand and Australia, and the numbers personally experiencing it, haven't changed in six years.
The findings, from the LEAD (Leadership, Employment and Direction) Survey of workplace trends conducted by Chase Research for Leadership Management Australasia (LMA) are drawn from 4077 respondents comprised of 264 leaders, 448 managers and 3365 employees. NZ respondents represent about 10 per cent of each sector. Over the same period, more organisations adopted policies to deal with bullying yet fewer bosses believed it was happening in their organisation.
LMA's chief executive, Andrew Henderson, said there appeared to be a lack of managerial commitment to the issue.
"There are more organisations today with a bullying management policy than six years ago, yet there is no apparent reduction in the incidence of bullying over that time, which suggests managers and leaders are not policing the policies," Mr Henderson said.
"A third of employees say they have observed bullying this year but a surprisingly high 72 per cent of leaders and 61 per cent of managers don't believe it is in happening in their organisation."
Bullying was one of seven workplace issues explored in the research, with inappropriate language, verbal harassment, inappropriate emails, racism, discrimination, and sexual harassment. Bullying was second most prominent from the employee perspective and third most prominent among managers and leaders, behind verbal harassment.