Workplace bullying by supervisors and managers in organizations in the United States is a significant problem that has repercussions on the mental, emotional, and economic health of employees. This phenomenon, known as "mobbing" or "workplace bullying," can manifest itself in various ways, including intimidation, humiliation, isolation, making the employee look like a liar, non-compliant, or poor performance. Their work, harassment and unfair work overload, to name some of the ways of workplace bullying. Do you identify with some of them or all of them? If so, I invite you to continue reading this article.
Effects on Employees
Employees who experience workplace bullying may experience a variety of negative consequences, such as:
Stress and anxiety: The hostile environment generates a significant increase in stress and anxiety levels and consequently this can bring other problems such as insomnia, high glucose levels, which can cause diabetes in the person.
Mental health problems: Can lead to disorders such as depression and low self-esteem.
Impact on performance: Productivity and quality of work usually decrease not only in the workplace, but also in the personal sphere.
Economic destabilization: Job insecurity and harassment can lead to frequent absences, salary reductions and even job loss, the latter being quite devastating since the employee leaves the company as a criminal and without the right to defend himself because according to the laws "It is difficult to prove retaliation, discrimination and harassment."
Role of Supervisors
In many cases, supervisors who practice workplace bullying lack adequate training in leadership and personnel management. They are selected not for their ability to lead, but for their willingness to be "puppets" of senior management, which contributes to a toxic and in some cases demotivating work environment since the "supervisor" knows less and has less experience than the employees. So the question would be what can you monitor if you don't know. This is where the conflict begins since the supervisor becomes a micromanager who wants to have control of everything to hide his fear and lack of capacity for that job.
Legal Framework
In the United States, although there is no specific federal law against workplace harassment, several states have adopted laws to protect workers from this type of conduct. Additionally, the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 offer protection in cases where harassment is based on race, color, religion, sex, national origin, age, or disability. But let's look at this more closely, according to legal experts it is very difficult to prove retaliation, discrimination and harassment. Not to mention that the elderly and people with physical and mental disabilities are the ones who suffer the most from the consequences of this capitalist system.In other words, employees are orphans within a legal framework in this country.
Lack of Empathy and Attention to Mental Health
The problem lies in the lack of empathy and attention to the mental health of employees by organizations. The focus on self-interest and the retention of mediocre supervisors, who can be easily manipulated, reflects a lack of commitment to employee well-being and a devaluation of talent and experience. Although many organizations boast of having values that protect employees, in my opinion it is vile political propaganda to cover their realities. The “Human Resources” department should be called “Institution Resources” because they are there to look after the interests of the institution and not the employee who in this case is the human resource.
Possible Solutions
To address this issue, organizations should consider:
Training and Education: Implement training programs for supervisors in leadership, conflict management, and empathy before being promoted to “supervisor.”
Clear policies: Establish clear workplace harassment policies and effective reporting mechanisms. It would be wise to have a third party who advocates for the employee and believes in the employee. Unfortunately, in many cases the employee's truth is nullified and silenced since the "Supervisor" as the puppet of the institution always has the active voice and the one to win in the dispute with what is known as "Human Resources."
Psychological support: Provide resources and psychological support for affected employees. This would be a dream come true for institutions to be able to provide this service to employees.
Supervisor evaluation: Evaluate the performance of supervisors not only in terms of results, but also in their ability to lead effectively.
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