Bullying at Work on the Rise
Is your boss a jerk? What about your co-workers? Your customers? Your subordinates? Apparently bullying at work is becoming the “new thing,” both in it’s happening and its focus in the workers’ comp world.
A new study by Career Builder finds that bullying at work is on the rise, with 35% of employees surveyed reporting that they had been bullied at some point at work. “Bullying,” as defined by the study, included being falsely accused of mistakes, double standards, criticism, getting yelled at in front of coworkers, and various other “mean” things.
Now, having the pleasure of knowing several of my beloved readers personally, I can imagine more than a few pairs of eyes rolling upon reading this post. But, like it or not, this is a very real threat to businesses and insurers.
Bullying can be real and serious and haunt an employee even beyond the 9-5 work day. Bullying can also just be a real workplace with real deadlines and real demands and a real need for employees with a thick skin. In either case, whether it is perceived or actual bullying, employees are made unhappy employees by it. Workers who aren’t happy don’t want to return to work, and they don’t mind “sticking it to the man” by filing ridiculous claims.
If you’re the boss, keep an eye out for this sort of behavior, especially in your own actions. No one wins when workers, injured in fact or injured in their imaginations, are on the war path for a place they feel has mistreated them.
It’s much cheaper to just be a decent human being than to face the psyche claims and increased workers’ compensation costs.
And if you don’t, I’ll find out about it and take your lunch money…