When victims of workplace bullying are let down by their bosses

John used to love his job. Today he is contemplating quitting. This is because the British university lecturer’s line manager undermines him in front of colleagues and students — behaviour he describes as bullying.

“It has the effect of suffocating real creativity and exploration. [The bully] engages you in petty disputes. When you are doing that, you’re not doing anything interesting or useful.”

Once certain that the “stupid and trivial” behaviour would not get him down, John, who would prefer not to use his name, says that he has taken time off work for a stress-related illness. His motivation to do any research has almost disappeared. “I used to be very enthusiastic; now I’m totally burnt out.”

Bullying is rife at universities, he says. “It’s appallingly common . . . The kind of thing that is punished if a janitor was doing it, in a professor it’s [seen as] eccentric.” Another academic describes the behaviour of his bullying line manager as “normalised”.

A report by the BBC this week, found universities have spent millions of pounds on non-disclosure agreements to settle bullying and sexual misconduct cases.

The #MeToo movement shone a light on toxic workplaces and helped workers to identify and expose sexual harassment. It prompted employers to scrutinise their policies. Some issued public statements, including on bullying.

Last year, after disclosing that 20 United Kingdom partners had been dismissed for misconduct, David Sproul, chief executive of Deloitte, the professional services firm, told the Financial Times: “There has been, unfortunately, a number of partners who have been fired for inappropriate behaviour, be it of a sexual nature or of a bullying nature.”

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Recently, Lloyd’s of London introduced a bullying and harassment hotline to help reform its culture. The International Bar Association will release new research on the nature and prevalence of bullying in the legal sector next month.

Its Legal Policy and Research Unit’s Women in Commercial Legal Practice report (2017) found that about 50 per cent of female respondents and 30 per cent of male respondents have experienced bullying at work.

Kiran Daurka, employment partner at law firm Leigh Day, says “bullying does not get the attention it deserves . . . Given how widespread it is, there does need to be greater protection for victims of bullying in an employment context”.

David D’Souza, membership director of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development, argues “there is a broader conversation that needs to take place about good work and the standards that people need to adhere to”.

In the UK — as with the US — there is no specific anti-bullying legislation. John suspects that his male line manager has made a “calculated decision” to target him because as a straight, white male he cannot complain of harassment (because he does not fall under a protected characteristic, including age, disability, race, sex and sexual orientation).

Although, if he resigns he could argue that there has been a breach of the implied duty of trust and confidence, and could bring a claim for potential constructive unfair dismissal.

Though as historic harassment cases have shown, even with legal protection, targets may feel reluctant to make a complaint in case it is not taken seriously, or worse, backfires.

It can be impossible to distinguish a bully from a harasser — in some cases they may be the same person.

Dame Laura Cox, a former high court judge who led an independent inquiry into harassment and bullying in the House of Commons, reported: “It is not always possible or sensible to try and compartmentalise misconduct of this kind. Some of those contributing to this inquiry described behaviour that would fall within more than one category.”

Sabir Giga, senior lecturer in organisational health and wellbeing at Lancaster University, who has studied bullying, says that there are many overlaps between harassment and bullying but that harassment tends to be more direct, whereas bullying is more subtle and psychological. “Fundamentally, bullying is not only about negative actions but also . . . obstructive behaviours.”

In countries where there is no specific legislation covering bullying in the workplace this gap should be filled, he says.

“There is a growing body of evidence on the detrimental effects of bullying on individuals, workplaces and society.”

There is also a cost. Bullying and harassment at the NHS was found to waste at least £2.3 billion a year, through employee absence, diminished productivity as well as compensation and legal costs.

Stanford University professor Robert Sutton cites in his book The No A**hole Rule the example of Ethan, a star sales person who also routinely insulted and bullied coworkers.

HR decided to quantify the cost of his bad behaviour, which it put at US$160,000, including the cost of employment counsel, hiring and retraining an assistant, but omitted the fallout for targets, and bystanders, such as decreased productivity, staff turnover and reputation.

The impact of bullying on individuals can be profound.

Helen (not her real name), who was bullied as a trainee lawyer, says that the attitude among her peers was “if it’s happening to someone else it’s not happening to me”.

One department was known as the “departure lounge” as there was such a high turnover of staff.

She was “so miserable”, she says, that one night she considered driving off the road “so that I could be hospitalised, not too seriously — I wanted to be off [work]”. In the end, she quit.

Jane, who does not want to use her real name, was isolated by her former line manager.

“He would tell me that a member of staff hated me, he had meetings without me. He told me everything I’d written was terrible.”

It prompted her to seek medical help for anxiety, she was prescribed sleeping pills.

She sought help from her human resources department but says they sided with her boss. The union did not help either.

So she approached an employment lawyer. Realising she would not have the resilience for a legal battle, ultimately Jane quit her job.

The financial cost has been significant. As well as losing her income, her pension payments froze. In the end, Jane found a lower-paid, insecure job and has not yet returned to her former salary levels.

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There is little research on the financial impact of harassment on a target’s career, but a study in the journal Gender & Society found that 80 per cent of women they spoke to changed jobs within two years of being harassed, over 6.5 times more than average job churn.

Outside traditional employment it can be even harder to find help. Literary agent Lizzy Kremer looked into the book industry in her role as president of the Association of Authors’ Agents.

“We like to suggest we have a flat hierarchy. That masks the fact that there are very strong dynamics within that relationship.”

She found that power dynamics might not follow strict organisational hierarchies: a young commissioning editor might not feel particularly powerful within a company but can have a lot of power over an author. An author at the start of their career has no power and when they become a best-seller has power.

“It is a question that we haven’t successfully answered when we are outside the normal corporate structures. We want to talk about what to do next. We wanted to start the conversation and haven’t got a clear answer yet.”

Bullying behaviour can be a sign of broader organisational dysfunction.

Nat Whalley, the chief executive of Organise, a digital-workplace activism-platform, says that the bullying reported by members is “often a symptom of a wider cultural problem in organisations, poor management allows bullying and harassment to thrive”.

Stamping out bullying may require root and branch change.

As Mr D’Souza notes: “All too often people give the next generation the experience they had in their earlier working lives rather than what they would have wanted. Nothing ever changes without self-reflection, education and action.” FINANCIAL TIMES

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Emma Jacobs is a features writer for the Financial Times, with a particular focus on workplace trends, business culture and entrepreneurship.