Bullying at Work
Bullying, harassment and victimisation are never nice, whatever form they take. And experiencing them at work can be extremely stressful to the extent that they might even have a significant impact on your health and wellbeing. But can you do anything about it? First, you need to understand what each one means…
What is bullying at work?
Bullying at work can actually take many forms and there is no single definition of it. However, it can be categorised as unwanted behaviour by one individual to another. This can range from explicit rudeness, to argumentative behaviour, to the opposite end of the spectrum of being ignored. Other more specific examples include:
- Humiliation of an employee
- Verbal abuse
- Physical violence or violent gestures
- Overloading with work and/or setting impossible deadlines
- Removal of responsibilities without genuine justification
- Deliberate exclusion from conversations and/or ignoring an employee’s contribution
This is not an exhaustive list, however, and other unpleasant treatment you experience at work may also be considered bullying.
It’s important to note that bullying is not, unfortunately, an actionable complaint in itself. Instead, it tends to be linked to another type of claim such as constructive dismissal, discrimination or harassment. To find out more about these specific examples, please click the links.
What can I do about bullying at work?
The first thing you need to do is speak to someone about it. If you can speak to someone you work with first, you may well find that you’re not the only one suffering.
It may also be appropriate to speak to the actual employee who is doing the bullying. However, it’s understandable if that doesn’t seem like a good option. So alternatively, you may be able to get a colleague to speak to them instead. Often it transpires that the bully wasn’t actually aware of the impact of their behaviour and someone talking to them is enough to get the bullying to stop.
If, however, an informal approach hasn’t worked, and you are continuing to experience bullying at work, then you may find your next step is to make an official complaint. In this case, what you are actually doing is registering an official grievance, and this is a critical step towards a claim for constructive dismissal at a tribunal. If you do decide to take this step, make sure you follow your company’s grievance procedure, because if you don’t, your claim may fail on the basis of lack of procedure being used.
As an aside, it’s a good idea to keep a diary of what you’re experiencing. In the event that you reach the point where you want to resign and take legal action – for example, for constructive dismissal – a diary will help towards providing evidence to support your claim.
But don’t leave it too long…
If you don’t resign quickly enough, a future tribunal may consider that you’d accepted the breach of terms, and your claim will be unsuccessful.
If you feel that the bullying you are currently experiencing at work may lead you to resign, then call us for a free initial telephone consultation to understand more – 0800 304 7254.
What is harassment at work?
Harassment at work, although sharing similarities with bullying, is actually linked to discrimination. Under the Equality Act 2010, harassment is defined as unwanted conduct that is related to a protected characteristic such as an individual’s sex, race, disability, age, religious belief, sexual orientation etc. Note that such conduct would have to have the purpose of either violating a person’s dignity, and/or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for it to be harassment.
Examples of harassment at work are:
- Sending offensive or abusive messages or pictures by internal/external mail, fax or e-mail
- Leering, whistling at or making sexually suggestive or insulting gestures
- Making uninvited and unwelcome physical contact
- Verbal and written harassment through jokes, offensive language, gossip and slander
This is not an exhaustive list, however, and other unpleasant treatment you experience at work may also be considered harassment.
What can I do about harassment at work?
It’s important to try to deal with the problem internally before leaping straight to taking legal action. So, a first step can be to look to address the matter informally. This may involve you, or a colleague, speaking to the person. And you may wish to be accompanied by a manager or colleague, and that’s fine.
If the harassment continues, however, after talking to the person, then it may be best to make a formal complaint via the company’s grievance procedure. When you do this, the matter should be investigated and hopefully resolved in your favour.
However, if it does not resolve in your favour, the next step you may want to consider is making a claim for discrimination that is linked to your harassment. It is important to note:
- You must make a claim within 3 months, minus one day, of the last act of discrimination. If you go past this date, your will not be able to make a claim.
- If you are thinking about resigning, you will have 3 months, minus one day, from the date of your resignation to make a claim for constructive dismissal.
The longer you leave it within those timescales, the more likely it becomes that the tribunal may deem you to have accepted the result of the grievance and thus dismiss your claim.
If you are considering making a claim because of the harassment you are suffering, then call us for a free initial telephone consultation to understand more – 01604 700099.
What is victimisation at work?
Victimisation at work is a specific complaint covered by the Equality Act 2010. If you believe you are being treated less favourably by your employers as a result of the following, then you may be being victimised:
- Making a formal complaint regarding a contravention of the Equality Act 2010 (for example regarding discrimination); or
- Supporting someone else who has made a complaint; or
- Your employer thinks you may have made a complaint; or
- Your employer thinks you may make a complaint
Examples of victimisation at work as a result of the above include, but are not limited to:
- Bullying
- Losing out on promotion
- Being denied training
- Unwarranted criticism
- Intimidating comments in emails
What can I do about victimisation at work?
It’s important that you submit a grievance via your company’s grievance procedure before you press ahead with a tribunal claim for victimisation. It’s worth noting that if you don’t do that it’s unlikely that any future legal action will be successful.
What should I do now?
If you feel you have been victimised and, having followed your company’s grievance procedure nothing has changed, then call us for a free initial telephone consultation to understand more – 0800 304 7254.
