Harassment At Work – A Silent Reality
One day at work, an employee or manager laughs at you openly. Or he will send you a list of tasks that are not part of your job according to your employment contract. If you do not do them, your boss will scold or humiliate you in front of your co-workers. Without realizing it, you give in to the press and accept what he demands, just so that you will be left in peace. You are exposed to harassment at work…
But it seems to work… for a while. For one day, he takes that step further, even though you do everything he asks. He tells you to do something even more degrading, or the mockery will get even worse. He might even yell at you, and that’s enough. You seek refuge with a superior, but he does not offer you a solution beyond just hardening out. But why should you have to do that? Why is it that the individuals who can solve the situation do nothing about it? That’s enough!
Harassment at work takes place in a relationship between the person who is harassing and the person who is being harassed. It takes place in the workplace and in an organizational environment. This situation can get better… or worse. Although it is worrying, more and more cases of this problem are constantly arising. Many different factors influence its origin, and some of them we will explain in more detail below.
The person who commits the harassment tends to have certain personality traits. Usually they are narcissistic, hot-tempered, vengeful people. They also tend to have low self-esteem and a high level of anxiety.
If so, those who harass can exercise power over the victims. They will distrust them and reduce their performance at work. But not only that, because they tend to take responsibility away from them or change their tasks to more unpleasant variants. In this way, the conflict will progressively worsen.
To these traits of the harasser, you need to add a set of decisions made in the workplace. These will perpetuate the situation over time. From this point of view , a high level of requirements but low levels of resources will lead to a higher risk of harassment at work. The personality traits of managers also play a big role.
Ineffective managers affect the situation, and so does their way of leading. If it is passive and despotic, if decisions are made arbitrarily, this type of situation will be promoted. Why? Because these are traits of a type of manager who tends to adopt a tolerant position when it comes to aggression and harassment at work.
The fact that the organization allows harassment at work is very worrying. This lack of respect not only harms the worker who is directly affected by the harassment, but also leads to costs for the same company and for society as a whole. Therefore, it is paradoxical that the managers who can put an end to this situation do not do so due to inaction. The situations will usually extend beyond this, after which it will be more complicated to deal with them.
Harassment at work comes with a set of disadvantages for the victim. First and foremost, it will affect the person’s psychological health. Symptoms of anxiety and depression may appear, as well as feelings of anger and emotional exhaustion. But it also produces fatigue and physical ailments, in addition to sleep problems.
In addition to the injury to the employee, harassment at work will also have negative consequences for the organization. Given the victim’s suffering, the person in question tends to resign. Employees who do not do so impair the overall performance of the workplace. As their dissatisfaction increases and devotion to the company increases, they will perform worse and be more urged to leave the company.
It can also affect employees who witness the situation. These people may develop stress, emotional exhaustion and a negative attitude towards the workplace. These experiences can also have repercussions in other areas of their lives, such as with the family.
Given the high cost of these harassments, both emotionally and financially, it is necessary to put an end to it. More specifically, organizations should avoid passive and tolerant attitudes in these situations. How? By encouraging positive attitudes and eliminating situational factors that can influence. This includes work overload, lack of adequate leadership or perceived injustices.
From this point of view, it is only right to encourage managers to be fair and supportive, as well as to increase the use of emotional intelligence. That way, they will know how to take action if someone reports a case of harassment. Therefore, it is bare for them to know how to handle the protocol that hijacks the problem at the roots.
Unfortunately, not many companies have protocols of this type. Many employees in managerial positions make hesitant decisions without sufficient thought behind them in these types of situations.
Within the company, there should be clear policies regarding this. Ambiguity should be pushed aside and clear protocols established for reporting and addressing harassment. It is good if there is a specialist in mediation in the company, and employees should take courses in emotional regulation and stress management. Then they will get the tools needed to deal with conflicts that arise.
Harassment at work is a real problem; one that is much more common than the statistics show. Because if it is characterized by something, it is the fact that many cases are silenced. No company wants to be involved in a scandal of this type. Many companies believe that this is a personal problem that should be handled internally, even if they do not say it out loud.
In other words, it is a problem that many companies try to hide and keep invisible.
Given the great psychological, physical and financial costs that it incurs not only for the victim, but for the whole organization and society, it is necessary to develop policies that address this problem. Especially within the company itself.
You can not have a tolerant attitude about this. It is extremely important for the victim to feel that the company is taking action to remedy the problem. This is to avoid feelings of defenselessness and that the harassment worsens over time.
