Stop Work-Bullying
When I’m not blogging I am a Project Manager. One thing that I’ve learned no matter what type of project I’m working on is no one, and I mean no one, likes a work bully. Even bullies don’t like their fellow bullies.
Bullies come in different shapes and sizes in the work place too, it’s not always just the big kid who grew a bunch over the summer. I’ve had a bully for a boss, a bully as a teammate at the same level as me and a bully who worked for me. Some bullies manipulate the truth, some bullies have a martyr complex, some bullies are just loud and aggressive (fyi, this is not an exhaustive list). But all bullies make the work place worse.
Here are a few things that make your company worse if you have bullies on your teams:
Quality Of Work
When I have to do work for a bullies project I do one of two things. Get it done as fast as I can so I don’t have to deal with them anymore or wait until the last minute and rush through it. I still so a sufficient job and they’re satisfied (for the moment) but I don’t go out of my way for them. I don’t spend extra time going the extra mile to help that person out. I do that for lots of non-bullies though.
Bullying also cause mistakes. All the non-bullies are so worried about the bully that more mistakes are made. I have absolutely no evidence to support that statement but I’ve seen it happen enough times for me to say it’s a fact.
Workplace Dynamics
Everyone likes to talk about a bully, so all the non-bullies are friends but having factions within the office is no good for anyone. Does everyone have to be friends at work for workplace harmony to exist? No way, that’s not even reasonable. But if you eliminate bullies from the team everyone can get back to work and drop the drama
Employee Turnover
I’ve lost plenty of quality, team-centric co-workers through the years all because they were tired of being bullied. (For some reasons bullies never find new jobs.) Eventually the bully wins and they get someone new to bully. Even if the new person is fantastic there’s still a ramp up time for the new worker which affects the productivity of the company.
So if you’re a work-bully cut it out!