He Doesn't Hit Me So It Doesn't Count

There are probably 101 ways a Bully or abusive person can cause physical or emotional pain - and whether they do it behind closed doors or publicly the outcomes are never pretty. But there are typically 3 choices in how you or someone you know can deal with it...

1. You can either put up and shut up and hope the bruising to body or self esteem doesn’t show…….
2. You can call for help and hope a knight or “ knightess” in shining armour comes to your rescue, or
3. You can stop unacceptable behaviour at the first sign by making that a non negotiable behaviour.

But, while the choices may be ours, sometimes the skills are not. While the circumstances may be different, the facts remain the same. We are responsible for setting the standards by which we live, and if that standard is compromised by a weakened mental or physical state of well being, it irrelevant if “he doesn’t hit me so it doesn’t really matter” - what matters is that people are suffering in all sorts of ways. While there may be no visible scars on the outside, the emotional ones run just as deep and often last longer than the physical pain. We are truly responsible for educating ourselves and our staff to fully take care of their heart, their head and their hands – their work - so they are fully protected from toxic behaviours.

As bosses we have the responsibility and privilege of caring for people at work. This means we need to ensure our workplaces are safe physically and mentally. It also means we have to ensure that bulling behaviours or actions are not condoned or left un addressed. By this it means that those who witness –either behind closed doors or publicly the behaviours that are toxic are in part contributing to bullying too. 

Our role as leaders in business today is to ensure that in no way, in no shape or in no form can we provide conditions or opportunities for bullies to take advantage of others in their workplace.

What do you do when you witness bullying behaviour? Tell us your stories and we will tell you how to eradicate bullying from the workplace.

 

www.rickynowak.com