Types of Bullies

Sadistic, narcissistic bully
Lacks empathy for others. Has low degree of anxiety about consequences. Narcissistic need to feel omnipotent. May appear to have a high self esteem but it is actually a brittle narcissism.

Imitative bully
May have low self esteem or be depressed. Influenced by the surrounding social climate. May use whining or tattling or be manipulative.

Impulsive bully
He/she is less likely to be part of a group. His/her bullying is more spontaneous and may appear more random. He/she has difficulty restraining him/herself from the behaviour even when authorities are likely to impose consequences. He/she is also likely to be bullied.

Physical Bullies
Physical bullies are action-oriented. This type of bullying includes hitting or kicking the victim, or, taking or damaging the victim’s property. This is the least sophisticated type of bullying because it is so easy to identify.

Verbal Bullies
Verbal bullies use words to hurt or humiliate another person. Verbal bullying includes name-calling, insulting, making racist comments and constant teasing. This type of bullying is the easiest to inflict on others. It is quick and to the point. It can occur in the least amount of time available, when no one else is around and its effects can be more devastating in some ways than physical bullying because there are no visible scars.
The lack of visible scars often leads people to think that the victim is exagerating and so cutting off support that the person needs as there is no visible trail for others to follow.
The effects of bullying on a victim can be a good clue also any other reports about the bully, talking to co-workers and discussing it with the bully looking at how they behave when confronted with whats happened. The last needs to be done with care as it may make matters worse for the victim.

Stressed, impulsive or unintentional bully
Occurs when someone is under stress or an institution is undergoing confusing, disorienting changes. This is the easiest to redirect.

Cyber bully
This includes hateful emails and cyber stalking. Some feel that employers who monitor employees’ email are using intimidation but this position can be debated. If it is used unfairly, it can be seen as intimidation.

Subordinate bully
Bullying perpetrated by subordinates (such as boss being bullied by an employee, nursing staff being bullied by a patient.)

Serial bully
An individual who repeatedly intimidates or harasses one individual after another. A victim is selected and bullied for an extended period of time until he/she leaves or asserts himself/herself and goes to Human Resources (HR)

The bully sometimes deceives HR by being charming while the victim appears emotional and angry.
Since there are often no witnesses, HR may accept the account of the bullying staff member, possibly a serial bully.  The bully may even convince the organization to get rid of the troublesome victim. Once the victim is out of the organization, the bully usually needs to find a new victim. This is because the bully needs someone on whom he can project his inner feelings of inadequacy. The bully may prevent others from sharing negative information about him by sowing conflict.

If the organization eventually realizes that it has made a mistake, it can difficult for them to publicly admit as they  feel to do so might make them legally liable.

This is very risky for the company.
A good set of policies and procedures should be in place to avoid this problem.

Secondary bully
Others in the office or social group start to react to bullying by imitating or joining in on the behaviour. This can lead to institutional bullying. Even if the primary bullying individual is removed, the secondary bullies may fill in the gap because they have learned that this is how to survive in this organization.

Pair bullies
Two individuals, sometimes people who are having an affair, or who are just peers collude to intimidate others. The participation of the second individual may be covert.

Gang bullies
The primary bully gathers a number of followers. He may be a loud, highly visible leader. If he is a quieter sort, his role may be more insidious. Some members of the group may actively enjoy being part of the bullying. They like the reflected power of the primary bully. If the primary bully leaves the organization, and the institution does not change, one of these individuals may step in to fill the shoes of the primary bully. Others of the gang join in because they feel coerced. They fear that if they do not participate, they will be the next victims. Indeed some of these individuals do become victims at some point in time.

Pressure bullying or unwitting bullying
Is where the stress of the moment causes behaviour to deteriorate; the person becomes short-tempered, irritable and may shout or swear at others. Everybody does this from time to time, but when the pressure is removed, behaviour returns to normal, the person recognises the inappropriateness of their behaviour, makes amends, and may apologise, and - crucially - learns from the experience so that next time the situation arises they are better able to deal with it. This is “normal” behaviour and I do not include pressure bullying in my definition of workplace bullying.

Regulation bullying
Is where a serial bully forces their target to comply with rules, regulations, procedures or laws regardless of their appropriateness, applicability or necessity.  Legal bullying - the bringing of a vexatious legal action to control and punish a person - is one of the nastiest forms of bullying.
It is often done “upwards” with financial gain in mind however this is not always the case.

Residual bullying
Is the bullying of all kinds that continues after the serial bully has left. Like recruits like and like promotes like, therefore the serial bully bequeaths a dysfunctional environment to those who are left. This can last for years.

Client bullying
Is where employees are bullied by those they serve, eg teachers are bullied (and often assaulted) by pupils and their parents, nurses are bullied by patients and their relatives, social workers are bullied by their clients, and shop/bank/building society staff are bullied by customers. Often the client is claiming their perceived right (eg to better service) in an abusive,  derogatory and often physically violent manner. Client bullying can also be employees bullying their clients.

Institutional bullying
Is similar to corporate bullying and arises when bullying becomes entrenched and accepted as part of the culture,and all of this is without consultation.
# People are moved
# Long-existing contracts are replaced with new short-term contracts on less favourable terms with the accompanying threat of “agree to this or else”
# Workloads are increased
# Work schedules are changed
# Roles are changed
# Career progression paths are blocked or terminated

Corporate bullying
# May occours when an organisation struggles to adapt to changing markets, reduced income, cuts in budgets, imposed expectations, and other external pressures.
Or where the employer abuses employees with impunity knowing/thinking that the law is weak and jobs are scarce, eg:

# Coercing employees to work after hours days or weeks on a regular basis then making life hell for (or dismissing) anyone who objects

# Dismissing anyone who looks like having a stress breakdown as it’s cheaper (in the UK) to pay the costs of unfair dismissal at Employment Tribunal (eg £50K maximum, but awards are usually paltry) than risk facing a personal injury claim for stress breakdown (eg £175K as in the John Walker case)
This behaviour can back fire on the company but short sighted employers may take the risk.

# Introduces “absence management” to deny employees annual or sick leave to which they are genuinely entitled. Company sick pay in itself is not an entitlement but statutory sick pay may be.

# Deems any employee suffering from stress as weak and inadequate whilst aggressively ignoring and denying the cause of stress (bad management and bullying)

# “Encourages” employees (with promises of promotion and/or threats of disciplinary action) to fabricate complaints about their colleagues The above 2 are very risky but go on never the less.

# Employees are “encouraged” to give up full-time permanent positions in favour of short-term contracts; anyone who resists has their life made hell.

# The following may be a normal practice, especially for a big company but the employee should be made aware of the practices when they go for the interview. The company must also make sure that the practices are not abused in any way and should also study the Data Protection Acts about collection and acess to information

Listening in to telephone conversations, using the mystery shopper, contacting customers behind employees backs and asking leading questions, conducting covert video surveillance (perhaps by fellow employees), sending personnel officers or private investigators to an employee’s home to interview the employees whilst on sick leave, interview the moment they return from sick leave. And possibly other practices that may be taken as bullying if the employee is unaware of them.

Bullies are inventive so the following list of of what a bully looks for in their targets is basic -

Remember:
Bullies need not target their “victims” because they are weak.

#You may just be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Bullies are predatory and opportunistic.

#Being good at your job.

#Being popular with people.

#The bully fears exposure of their inadequacy and incompetence, your presence, popularity and competence unknowingly and unwittingly fuel that fear.

#Being the expert and the person to whom people come to for advice, getting more attention than the bully.

#Having a well-defined set of values which you will not compromise.

#Having a sense of integrity.

#Having at least one vulnerability that can be exploited.

#Being too old or expensive.

#Showing independence of thought or deed.

#Jealousy and envy are strong motivators of bullying.
# Unwarranted or invalid criticism while ignoring achievement

# Undermine in front of others, raise false concerns, or express doubts over a persons performance or standard of work, however unsubstantiated this may be

# Overrule, ignore and isolate a person from what’s happening.

# Regularly choose the target by offensive remarks and language or give the silent treatment.

#Single out and unfairly treat a person differently to other members of staff.

# Degrade, threaten, or humiliate.

# Subject someone to unwarranted or unjustified verbal or written warnings. This falls under  The Employment Act 2002 (Dispute Resolution)

# Set goals and deadlines which are unachievable or which are changed without notice or reason.

# Deny information necessary for undertaking work whilst others often receive more than they need.

# Refuse support if they are a manager.

# Overload a person with work or have all their work taken away and replaced with inappropriate jobs.

# Increase someone’s responsibility but remove his/her authority.

# Have work plagiarised, – the bully then presenting the target’s work as their own.

# Find requests for leave unacceptable and place unnecessary conditions, sometimes overturning previous approval.

# Send unpleasant or threatening calls or harass with intimidating memos, notes or emails

# Invite you to informal meetings which turn out to be disciplinary hearings

# Encourage you to feel guilty and to believe you are always the one at fault

Regain Control

# You are not to blame

# You must not feel it is acceptable

# You have a right to get it stopped

# You have a right to complain

# You have a right to confidentiality

# You have a right to dignity and respect

With the above in mind here is some ways to help regain control of your situation:

# Recognise what is happening to you, accept that you are being bullied and it is the bully who has the problem, which they are projecting onto you, and that it can be delt with.

One of the first ways to help stop bullying at the start can be if yourself or a colleague approaches the bully and states:

“I wish to make it clear that your (state type) of behaviour is unacceptable. I (persons name if colleage doe’s this for you) find it distressing and want it stopped now please”.

Then turn round and leave the room, do not discuss it or make any comments to the person, just inform them if they try to run after you or your colleague that

“the matter is closed”

# Do not accept criticisms and allegations about you or your performance, containing little or no grain of truth, these are not about you or your performance.

Test the criticisms If they are genuine then, they will be constructive, the person making them will be willing to assist you in the most positive way to improve whatever is the problem.

If they are not helpful or constructive then do not be fooled into believing that the criticisms or allegations have any validity – they do not.  The purpose of  bullying criticism is control, it has nothing to do with performance enhancement.  This is a projection of the bully’s own weaknesses, shortcomings, failings and incompetence.

# You may be encouraged to feel shame, embarrassment, guilt and fear. This is a normal reaction but misplaced and inappropriate. Again this is a form of control.

# You may feel that you are not able to handle bullying by yourself.  Get help.  There is no shame or failure in this, the bully is devious, deceptive, manipulative and cheating.

Approach your manager, HR or company owner as a start point.

#Keep a journal/diary of everything – Legally one incident can be enough for a tribunal but the number, regularity and pattern of incidents can help with proving the bullying.

# Keep your diary in a safe place, not at work where others may see it.  Keep it at home, keep photocopies of important documents in a separate location.  Bullies are known to rifle through target’s desks and it has been known for the diary to be stolen and used as evidence of misconduct.

# Keep copies of all emails, memos and letters.  Get and keep everything you can in writing otherwise the bully can deny at a later date.

# Carry a notepad and pen with you and record everything that the bully says and does together with anyone else connected with the bullying.

# Record everything in writing including criticisms or allegations.  Write and ask the bully to substantiate their criticisms or allegations in writing.  When the bully does not reply or fails to supply substantive and quantifiable evidence, write again pointing out you have asked for justification and the bully has chosen not to reply or failed to justify the claim.  On the third occasion, point out, in writing, that making allegations and refusing to substantiate them in writing or failing to provide substantive and quantifiable evidence is a form of harassment.

# Denial is common and everywhere.  The person who asserts their right not to be bullied is often blowing the whistle on another’s incompetence. This will not be popular and you can expect the bully to deny everything.

You may find the bully’s superiors also deny and disbelieve everything and in some cases expect personnel/human resources (if available) to disbelieve and deny the bullying, although they are usually impartial and deal only in facts.

# A bully likes to play people off against each other, so try to reunite yourself with your employer against the bully.  Point out professionally that the serial bully is encouraging the employer and employee to engage in adversarial interaction and destructive conflict in which there can be no winners, only losers.  If a bully does not succeed in watching others destroy each other, he will move on which leaves the employer to incur all the vicarious liability for their behaviour.

# Serial bullies are very good at deceiving and manipulating.  Do not underestimate any bully.  When dealing with your employer, focus exclusively on legal and financial matters.  Provide them with information which confirms the employers’ legal requirements.

# Build yourself a support network, however, expect your colleagues to melt away and not be involved.

You may be advised to stand up for yourself (although the person stating this will have no idea how you can do this) and this could make the situation worse.

# See your Doctor.  Bullying can cause prolonged negative stress, which results in psychiatric injury.  Psychiatric injury has nothing to do with mental illness.  If stress is diagnosed make sure it the cause is recorded ie., stress caused in the workplace. If depression is diagnosed, make sure it is recorded as reactive depression.

Remember that stress is not the employee’s inability to cope with excessive workload but a consequence of the employer’s failure to provide a safe system of work as required by the UK Health and Safety Act 1974 or the Harassment Act 1997

# If you are forced into sickness absence, ill health or stress breakdown through bullying, record it in the accident book, this ensures the bullying is officially logged.  Inform the employer in writing that a person’s bullying behaviour has resulted in injury to health causing you (and others) to be ill.  If you are subsequently victimised for doing this, you may be able to claim victimisation under the UK Employment Rights Act 1996 or the UK Harassment Act 1997

# If you feel strong enough reassure your partner/family that your symptoms are psychiatric injury and things will get better.

# If the bullying has caused you to be off sick with stress, anxiety, depression, and your employer is trying to coerce you back to work.

Write a letter to your employer stating that your absence ‘is due to symptoms of psychiatric injury resulting in stress caused by the inappropriate behaviours of others and unduly stressful working conditions and that you look forward to returning to work at the earliest opportunity. To facilitate your return ask that the employer assures you, in writing, that they will fulfil their obligation of duty of care under the UK Health and Safety Act 1974

to provide you with both a safe place of work and a safe system of work.

Some employers carry out post absence interviews this should be done with the intention of helping the employee by making sure that if they are fit to return to work and the company is meeting it’s obligations as a company.

As one example of coercion a small company owner informed the employee that as the CO had not seen the wound that the employee was making it up. This was despite the fact that mangers had been present when the wound had happpened and the employee had been to a Dr and the hospital for iv treatment and to see a plastic surgeon.

Despite sick notes and with more abuse the matter is now in the hands of lawyers.

# Take the matter up with your manager or company owner  in a small business although bullies can be the company owner you would approach. In these circumstances you would be best to leave the business and decide if it is worth taking to a tribunal or restarting your life.

# If your employer has one (they should do) obtain a copy of your companies bullying and harassment policy.  You might wish to do this discreetly (ie. through a third party) if you are not ready to challenge the bully.

# Obtain as much written information about yourself from your workplace as you can lay your hands on. Make sure it is copies, originals should not be used. And do not remove originals or copies without permission.

# Follow the grievance procedure, but be aware that such procedures can be biased in favour of the manager.  A company with no set procedure should follow the ACAS Grievance Procedure. If a company doe’s not follow their own grievence procedure then they are not looked on favourably by a tribunal.

# If the bully is making unwarranted criticisms in public or on your record, you may feel it is appropriate to ask your solicitor to write to the bully pointing out that he or she is subject to the laws of slander, libel and defamation of character.

# If your employer refuses to get involved or backs the bully in his/her attempt to get rid of you, you might consider

The ACAS Dispute Resolution service (free) If that does not work get your solicitor to write to someone in authority outlining the way your manager has treated you, stating that your rights in law will be vigorously defended against the unacceptable behaviour of one of their employees, whose actions will be monitored as a consequence of his or her declared intentions.  This turns the spotlight on the bully rather than on the target.

# Consider leaving – regard it as a positive decision in the face of overwhelming odds which are not of your choosing, not of your making and over which you have no control.  In this type of situation, walking away can be the best thing because you remain in control.  Choose to move on and find an employer who does value you and your skills.  Do not allow your health to be destroyed.  What is more important, your job, your health, your career, life or family?

# If you are forced to leave, make it clear to your employer in writing that this is due to bullying.  You should not be asked to sign anything by your employer however if you are, get professional advice before signing.

# A reference is a legal requirement and cannot be withheld if requested and  strict rules govern the contents. Most employers require a reference from your previous employer and the bully never misses an opportunity to sabotage your career.

#If all else fails, consider taking your employer to an Employment Tribunal.

# Don’t forget legal advice is advised. Contact one of the national trade union bodies, your trade body legal department or a lawyer that deals with employment law.

For those in other countries please check up your own country or states laws.

Avoiding Trouble

Prevention is always better than cure and the moment an issue becomes formal it can feel like everyone has lost.
Far better to ceate the atmosphere where bullying is not tolerated in the first place.

This means that the management has to be aware of what is  and isnt acceptable behaviour and to ensure that everyone is trained and aware of the information.

Good management is the best way to avoid or deal with bullying issues in the workplace. Trust should be built up and maintained from the start. A good HR department is invaluable as well unfortunatly in small companies where the bully is the company owner this is not possible.

Resist the temptation to put your existing anti-harassment policy on your PC screen and use your word processor to find all occurrences of the word “harassment” and add after it the words “and bullying”. It doesn’t work.

A wider approach is likely to be more effective, especially in the long-term. Instead of having one policy on harassment, I suggest having an overall policy called, say, Dignity at Work, which contains an introduction stating the reasons for having this policy etc, then separate chapters on harassment, discrimination, assault and violence, bullying, treatment of minorities, etc in line with your chosen ethos and emphasis.

You can orient it towards equal opportunities, or diversity, or legalities, or cost, or benefits to employees and business, or whatever you choose. This way, you can update individual sections without having to re-issue the whole policy every time. The phrase “Dignity at Work” derives from European law, whereby harassment and discrimination are examples of unacceptable behaviour which “affect the dignity of men and women at work”. The way the Act applies to the UK and what Acts under UK law it draws are available here.
The NI Equality Commission has an interesting set of publications that may be of assistance

Make sure you understand the different types of bullies. The way in which you deal with each will vary. For example, mediation is useful with unwitting bullying and organisational bullying, but it’s wholly inappropriate for dealing with a serial bully. Some bullies like mediation because it gives them the opportunity of appearing to be conciliatory whilst simultaneously evading accountability and carrying on with their bullying. Although there may be a pause, within two weeks, the bullying will have resumed.

Ensure you know how to identify, expose and deal with the serial bully, who is often an unrecognised sociopath. It is estimated one person in thirty is a serial bully. Find out how the serial bully gets away with their unacceptable behaviour repeatedly. Start by learning to recognise the serial bully from his/her behaviour profile.

Know how to investigate a case of bullying. it’s a specialised job and an investigation is more than just asking questions and taking statements. The serial bully is adept at creating conflict between those who would otherwise pool negative information about them whilst indulging their gratification of seeing others (employer and employee) destroy each other. The serial bully is also adept at distorting people’s perceptions of them. In the event of the serial bully being identified and held to account, the bully may leave, resulting in the employer defending litigation (for the bully’s behaviour) which may last years.

If you have a serial bully on the staff, then the bullying you see will be only the tip of an iceberg of wrongdoing by that person.

Resist the temptation to take an existing unresolved case and make this person a guinea pig early on before the ink on the policy is dry. If the policy doesn’t work, the person may feel further victimised and more litigious

All employers should put into place an anti-bullying strategy by ensuring that contracts of employment state that this type of behaviour will not be tolerated and confirm that any bullying behaviour will result in disciplinary action.

There should be a grievance procedure that provides a clear way for the employee to complain and voice their problems.  This may not put off the calculating bully but it may deter those who believe that management will not take it seriously.

All complaints received must be investigated promptly and objectively.  Employees do not usually make serious accusations unless they feel seriously upset or aggrieved.
This investigation must be objective and independent.

Some problems can be rectified quickly and informally, sometimes people are not aware that their behaviour has caused any upset or offence and by discussing this an agreement can be reached that this behaviour will cease.  The victim may do this himself or herself or they may require support from an employer, an employee representative, or a counsellor.

An employer may decide that it is a disciplinary issue, which needs to be dealt with formally at the appropriate level and in line with the disciplinary procedure.

Representation is a grey area in the UK, with many employers claiming that the person who is the alleged target of bullying is not entitled to representation.
Denial of representation is a common tactic by which bullies reveal themselves.

The Employment Rights Act 1996 gives employees the legal right to be accompanied during grievance procedures and disciplinary hearings, but only by a union rep or fellow worker; the former often are too involved with management to be impartial, and the latter are too frightened to come forward and are often threatened by the bully anyway.

A reasonable employer will go beyond what the law requires and allow the target to be accompanied by a person of their own choosing. In fact employer should allow and encourage both parties to have a representative of their choice and without limitation present in all meetings related to the formal procedure

If this is permitted then the advice would be to get a professional in as opposed to a friend who will be biased or may behave inappropriately.
The company can also train other employees in the role of mediator so the target feels that they have a greater range of help to choose from within the organisation.

Author: http://www.lifeafteradultbullying.com/620/index.html