Is it bullying or constructive feedback?
The following story arose in one of my leadership classes during a discussion on diversity. Specifically, the topic was age diversity. Workplace culture was also an aspect of the discussion. This included the impact of age on the workplace culture when comparing the world view of a twenty something compared to someone who is fifty years old or older.
A participant of one of my leadership courses related how she was under disciplinary action for bullying and harassment. The way she related this indicated her statement was only part of the story. The full story included the fact there were repeated errors in the packing slips supplied to the warehouse which was part of her area of responsibility.
She identified the combination of items being ordered was incorrect. She determined to address the matter with the team members processing the packing slips. The people responsible for the packing slips deemed her intervention as ‘bullying’ and raised this with their manager. The manager agreed this was bullying behaviour. He instructed the identifier of the faults to no longer speak to the people who supplied the packing slips to the warehouse. Human Resources became involved.
My participant, upon seeing more errors complied with the ‘no talk’ rule now in place and delivered the packing slips, with incorrect entries, back to the writers having used a highlighter to mark the faults. The writers of the packing slips reported this to their manager who determined the behaviour was now ‘harassment’.
The above story was shared with all the participants on the course that day. Questions were asked and challenges presented. The outcome being the entire group was baffled as to how the identification of repeated errors had become an HR issue determined to be bullying and harassment.
What are the facts?
Work safe offers a guide with the title, Bullying at Work: Advice for Workers.
The definition of Bullying used by Worksafe
Workplace bullying is:
Repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or a group of workers that can lead to physical or psychological harm.
Repeated behaviour is persistent (occurs more than once) and can involve a range of actions over time.
Unreasonable behaviour means actions that a reasonable person in the same circumstances would see as unreasonable. It includes victimising, humiliating, intimidating, or threatening a person.
Bullying may also include harassment, discrimination, or violence
Workplace bullying is not:
One-off or occasional instances of forgetfulness, rudeness, or tactlessness
Setting high performance standards
Constructive feedback and legitimate advice or peer review
A manager requiring reasonable verbal or written work instructions to be carried out
Warning or disciplining workers in line with the business or undertaking’s code of conduct
A single incident of unreasonable behaviour
Reasonable management actions delivered in a reasonable way
Differences in opinion or personality clashes that do not escalate into bullying, harassment, or violence.
Is this bullying?
It should be agreed, this article presents generalizations about the characteristics of age. The spectrum of attitudes and emotional intelligence is not a finite quality attributed to the year of birth. The intent is to determine a course or path the navigate the workplace culture.
The generalizations, as discussed by my group on that day, included the propensity for ‘twenty somethings’ to take offence when given an instruction being more likely than a 50 year old.
One of the problems with social media, in my opinion, is the fact a perceived offending action or statement can be commented upon, underpinned with the emotional intensity of the writer, and published to one or many social media platforms. This is then deemed a legitimate opinion. The opinion is now in print within cyberspace and justified with a form of legitimacy as a valid opinion.
Pertinent to this topic is a recent situation where I found a car parked in my reserved carpark. I quietly pointed out to the driver of the car they were in is my reserved parking space. The female passenger quickly got out of the car. With her phone in hand and with the camera pointed at me, which I assumed was an act of filming, proceeded to challenge me as being an angry bully! Yes, as mentioned above I am in the over 50 years old category and the people in the car were in the twenty something category. As it quickly became apparent this was a conversation going no where I went into the building where I was facilitating that day. Within a few minutes a large man stood over me as I was seated in my teaching room completing my preparations for the day. He berated me on my challenge to the woman in the car and stated I had left the woman in tears?? The incident had been reported to him by the young woman. He was not a witness. Upon explaining situation, he withdrew. I was now somewhat irritated as I was having to defend myself having been accused of bullying. Ironically by someone who had volunteered to bully me.
May I be clear. I am not suggesting all ‘twenty somethings’ are social justice warriors armed with smartphones. What I am suggesting is somewhere between concepts of emotional intelligence, critical reasoning as espoused by the Greeks and modern-day concepts of bullying and offence we may have problems.
Relationships stand to be broken, good employees may leave or at best our workplace culture can be undermined. We need to ensure that we can defend our selves from workplace bullies while accepting constructive feedback for the sake of a safe and productive workplace.
Are we having enough shared stories of typical events to ensure the correct identification of bullying is applied?