Canada has a pretty poor record when it comes to bullying in the workplace.
A 2018 study by Forum Research found 55% of Canadians reported they, a co-worker, or both had been bullied in the workplace.
Workplace bullying is a risk to employee health and safety and under provincial and territory legislation, employers need to take all reasonable steps to eliminate the risk to workers. Failing to do so could open the business up to grievance procedures or human rights complaints.
Bullying causes serious mental and physical harm; it disrupts the workplace, damages morale, and reduces productivity.
Every employer needs to take workplace bullying very seriously. Despite legislation, the statistics prove that it is still prevalent in too many Canadian workplaces and we all need to make efforts to turn it around.
What is bullying in the workplace?
If someone comes to you and says they have been bullied or have witnessed others being bullied at work, you first need to be clear about what constitutes bullying.
The Canadian Centre for Occupational Health and Safety (CCOHS) defines bullying as “repeated incidents or a pattern of behaviour that is intended to intimidate, offend, degrade or humiliate a particular person or group of people.”
The Worksafe boards in all provinces across Canada also have a definition for bullying and while the definitions are all slightly different, they all agree that behaviour that makes a person feel uncomfortable or humiliated is not to be tolerated in the workplace.
The key word here is “repeated” - the behaviour isn’t a one-off incident; it is recurrent conduct that could psychologically or 'mentally' hurt or isolate a person in the workplace.
A single incident of unreasonable behaviour isn’t generally considered bullying, however letting these incidents go unchecked creates an environment where this type of behaviour is accepted and can become the norm.
Bullying behaviour doesn’t have to be direct; it could be as subtle as deliberately not including someone in workplace activities. Bullying often involves a power imbalance, whether inherent or because the target ends up in an inferior position due to the bullying behaviour. Also, don't overlook the potential for cyberbullying to occur in workplace communication channels, text messages or social media.
Managing an employee in a lawful and reasonable way is not bullying, e.g. allocating work or giving performance feedback.
Examples of bullying in the workplace
Bullying is a range of abusive, offensive or intimidating behaviour, language or comments. It can be direct and personal, or it can be indirect and task-related (CCOHS says it could also involve negative physical contact).
Examples of indirect bullying include:
- Making belittling remarks.
- Ignoring or excluding someone.
- Shouting or yelling at them.
- Persistently criticizing them.
Examples of task-related bullying can include:
- Giving someone an impossible workload or tasks to complete.
- Withholding or concealing information that they need to do their job.
- Repeatedly interrupting them or refusing to let them make their point.
- Demoting or reducing their responsibilities at work.
Common targets of bullying in the workplace
- Forum Poll research found older people aged between 55 and 64 and those aged between 25 and 34 experience higher rates of bullying in the workplace.
- Women are more likely to experience bullying or harassment, especially task-related bullying like being undermined with unwarranted criticism, given unachievable goals, or being excluded from important decisions.
- Men are more likely to experience personal attacks such as being yelled at, publicly humiliated or threatened with violence.
- Some research indicates that people who experience more negative emotions (e.g. anxiety, sadness, anger, insecurity) are at a greater risk of being bullied.
Why bullying is so harmful to people and to the business
The repeated nature of bullying makes it extremely damaging. On a personal level, bullying has been proven to harm people’s well-being in many ways, from increasing anxiety, stress, and burnout to causing serious physical or mental health issues, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even suicidal behaviour.
It’s not just the victim; witnesses and bystanders can also be affected by the hostile work environment, and the cumulative impacts on the business can be significant.
Statistics Canada estimates the cost of employee absence due to bullying and harassment is roughly $19 billion per year.
As well as increased employee leave, bullying leads to decreased work performance, higher turnover, and reduced productivity due to time spent on addressing complaints. Add to that the damage to company reputation and public image, which can further hamper the ability to attract and retain talented workers and harm overall profitability.
The International Labor Organization has identified workplace bullying as one of the greatest threats to business success.
Workplace bullying has a damaging effect on employees, overall workplace culture, and profitability.
How to prevent bullying in the workplace
Every Canadian employer has a duty to provide a safe and healthy workplace and to protect employees from risks, including harm to their physical and psychological health.
While bullying may be difficult to totally eliminate, you should take all possible steps to minimize the likelihood of it occurring, just like any other workplace hazard. This starts with a positive company culture that promotes respect and understanding among employees and actively involves all team members in raising awareness and addressing risks.
Every organization should have a bullying and harassment policy (either stand-alone or as part of your health and safety policy). The policy should define the rights and obligations of employees and managers and document how your business will work to prevent bullying and how you will respond to any issues.
Components of an effective workplace bullying policy
An effective workplace bullying policy should clearly cover these elements:
- The definitions of bullying and harassment.
- Examples of behaviour that counts as bullying and harassment.
- Examples of behaviour that is not considered bullying and harassment.
- Reporting procedures and process for resolution.
There should be a clear escalation process so everyone knows what to do if they want to raise an issue. If there is no clear internal process or people don’t feel comfortable making a complaint (quite possible in a company with only a few employees), then they have a right to seek external help, e.g. from a helpline, their union, lawyers. Employees also have one year (of the last incident) to file a complaint with the Canadian Human Rights Commission.
Having a zero-tolerance policy always needs to be matched with practice. Bullying in any form shouldn’t be accepted as a normal part of the job. It shouldn’t be swept under the rug or forgiven in the belief it’s a hard-nosed style of management that’s good for performance and productivity.
Bullying isn't effective performance management and effective performance and issues management never involves bullying.
If you need help with strategies to identify and prevent bullying at your workplace, the CCOHS website is a good place to start. The MyHR team can help you draft policies, review practices, and support you and your team with managing any bullying concerns or complaints if they arise.
How to respond to workplace bullying complaints
1. Acknowledge the complaint
If you receive a bullying complaint from one of your employees, you need to treat it seriously and respond quickly and fairly.
The first thing to do is to acknowledge it and meet with the person (known as the “complainant”) - this can be done in person, over the phone, or on a video call. Check to see if there is anything they need right now to feel supported at work, ask if there is anything that they would like to do while you look into and respond to their complaint (e.g. work from home for a period of time), and understand what they would like to happen as a result of their complaint.
Understanding their desired outcome is critical. Sometimes employees want the person they’ve accused of bullying fired immediately, and are surprised to hear that there is a process to follow before any decisions can be made. On the other hand, sometimes employees don’t want to go “on the record”, and just want to make their boss aware of the behaviour.
This can be particularly tricky to manage as an employer, because while you need to respect the complainant’s privacy, once they have reported the bullying, you have a duty of care to address it. If an employee raises a bullying complaint, but “doesn’t want this to go any further”, seek legal advice before deciding how to proceed.
2. Investigate
Once you are aware of the complaint, decide whether you want to bring in an external workplace investigator to look into the matter. If physical harm has been caused, however, the police need to be involved.
Workplace investigators are licensed professionals who have experience running investigations, and will be able to impartially and professionally investigate the matter and provide you with a full report at the end of the process.
This can be an appropriate step if you’re a large organization who has the resources to engage these professionals; if the complaint itself is very serious, complex, or takes place over a long time period; or if your policy requires it.
For most small businesses, it’s impractical and expensive to engage a workplace investigator, and you may choose to look into the matter yourself. Make sure that whoever leads the investigation is as impartial as possible, has no connection to the bullying complaint, and is provided with professional support as they proceed.
When investigating, put aside preconceptions and stay as objective and open-minded as possible. Keep in mind that the person who’s been accused of bullying behaviour (the “respondent”) and any witnesses may also need support. You are not running a criminal investigation and both parties need to be given the opportunity to present their version of events.
Take notes so you have a record. This improves objectivity and reduces hearsay or potential conflict of opinions.
3. Make a decision
Once you have all the information in front of you, decide what you think has happened “on the balance of probabilities” (i.e. given all the circumstances, what you think is most likely to have happened). Accusations of bullying can be hard to prove. Sometimes, there’s a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable management and personal interaction, especially in a busy workplace. Perceptions and context are important too.
Remember, bullying is about repeated and unreasonable behaviour towards another person or group - it isn’t necessarily about what the respondent intended or what they thought they were doing.
Whatever you do, don’t try to brush complaints off as something insignificant. Employers who don’t take bullying allegations seriously and don’t follow proper, transparent processes can find themselves in court.
4. Take action
If the allegations against the respondent are upheld, you will need to take remedial action, which may be a combination of:
- Support for the complainant/victim, so they feel safe at work.
- Rehabilitation and training for the respondent/perpetrator or taking disciplinary action to issue a warning or dismiss them (if the behaviour amounts to misconduct or serious misconduct).
Even if the respondent is well-liked, successful, or holds a senior position, the ongoing harm they can cause to your employees and business is far greater than any benefit they may bring to the organization.
Once you have addressed an issue, make sure you continue to follow up and check that the resolution has been effective and everyone feels supported.
Find out more about how to handle employee complaints against a co-worker.
