Workplace Violence: The Bullying Factor

A lot has been written about the workplace bully and so my approach will deal with the assessment and analytical process of workplace violence. During my years as a Postal Inspector on a Workplace Violence Interdiction Team in New York, I quickly gained an appreciation for the value of determining the "root causes" or "contributing factors" of incidents of Bullying and Bully Tactics. In all of the assessments conducted involving bullying behavior "root causes" and "contributing factors" enabled the investigative process to determine that in all cases the victim retaliated escalating the bullying to a physical altercation or threats of bodily harm. The bully created such an emotional response in his victim over time sufficiently enough to create a spontaneous response. As such, I've come to define that Bullying is harassing, intimidating, offensive, degrading, demoralizing and humiliating to the victims: employee, co-workers and supervisors alike. The behavior was patterned, unfavorable, unwarranted and reasonably inappropriate for the workplace setting. While the individual Bully was obviously at fault, management for its failure to curb the behavior contributed to the hostility by creating a permissive environment that empowered the Bully. Sensing that he would not be sanctioned he acted with impunity. The unfortunate reality is that the Bully exist to fill a void; some thought his antics were funny; others relished in the abuse and banter; if it was racially or ethnically charged comments it had appeal to the bigots. As uncanny is it sounds most victims and witnesses interviewed after the fact were disgusted at knowing how long they were subjected to the abuse and how much they tolerated without intervention until the victim retaliated. It just happens over time like the diagnosis of cancer. WHO ENGAGES IN BULLYING TACTICS? -An employee -Co-workers -Customers and employees -Employees and Clients -Employees and Vendors -Supervisors or manager During the many threat assessments conducted, I learned that Bullying is a form of workplace entertainment by some and an accepted part of the workplace culture by others. You the victim must be willing to resist the victimization and confront the individual to avoid the potential for escalation ultimately leading to the unfortunate spontaneous and subsequent consequences for engaging in a fight. It's easy to be intimidated by this behavior, it is designed to control you. However, don