How Does an Office Bully Affect the Workplace?
Other People Are Reading
-
Workplace Morale
-
An office bully can have a deleterious effect on workplace morale. Known for short tempers and poor social skills, an office bully often overrides or shouts down fellow employees who disagree with them or hold different views and opinions. This can create a very unpleasant and hostile working environment; as a result, employee interaction and functioning becomes labored and stressed. The overall level of employee morale suffers.
Work Impedence
-
As the level of workplace and employee morale drops due to an office bully's presence, the performance of employee job duties and functions is negatively affected. When employees no longer have a pleasant working environment, their motivations and abilities to adequately complete work assignments and duties drastically falls. This can lead to missed deadlines, work sanctions, product delayment, and poor or non-existent employee bonuses.
-
Employee Intimidation
-
An office bully is no different than the standard, run-of-the-mill playground or schoolyard bully. A bully thrives on the weakness of others. An office bully will routinely antagonize, pick on, or just plain bully into silence those employees whom are timid, shy or non-assertive. This can lead to not only drastic workplace implications on the part of the bullied employee, work productivity and frequent absences, but it can also lead to tremendous personal stress and life disruption.
Frequent Employee Absences and Sick Days
-
A frequent occurrence in workplaces affected by office bullies are frequent sick days and absences on the parts of employees in direct working contact with an office bully. Due to the hostile, strained working environment that an office bully creates, many fellow employees will seek to minimize the amount of working time spent with an office bully, and this means utilizing frequent sick days, personal days or personal vacation days.
-
