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Editor's comment
22:00 21 Sep 2005
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Bully for you
These days everybody is driven by targets. Achieving margins, cutting costs, beating timescales, reducing headcount, meeting key performance indicators. You name it, almost everything in the world of business has a number attached to it, and a financial bonus for beating it or a penalty for getting things wrong.
It is a world of continual pressure, and one in which everyone is quick to lay the blame at someone else's feet.
So should it really be any surprise that bullying is such a problem in the workplace? And that it is a growing issue in the construction industry? Some people would argue that bullying has almost always existed on site. But they would be more surprised to learn that it happens to office-based executives too.
The Chartered Management Institute's survey found that two-thirds of executives felt they were undermined by criticism, 65% suffered verbal insults and 61% were treated unfairly. In business in general, almost half of middle managers had been bullied, and about 20% of junior managers, but perhaps the most shocking result is that almost a third of directors had been bullied.
It seems rather unlikely, until you account for the fact that bullying isn't just an internal issue. Customers and clients are just as likely - and perhaps even more so in some cases - to be the bully.
Coping with bullies within your business, and tackling those that are customers or even suppliers, is a difficult task. It's often far easier to avoid dealing with it, but that is hardly likely to make the problem go away. It will only get worse.
The construction industry needs to tackle these concerns effectively. Managers need to be trained to deal confidently with bullying and the bullies. Until this happens, the issue is unlikely to improve.
In an industry that is fighting for every new recruit it can get, providing a workplace that is safe and free from bullying should surely be a given.
These days everybody is driven by targets. Achieving margins, cutting costs, beating timescales, reducing headcount, meeting key performance indicators. You name it, almost everything in the world of business has a number attached to it, and a financial bonus for beating it or a penalty for getting things wrong.
It is a world of continual pressure, and one in which everyone is quick to lay the blame at someone else's feet.
So should it really be any surprise that bullying is such a problem in the workplace? And that it is a growing issue in the construction industry? Some people would argue that bullying has almost always existed on site. But they would be more surprised to learn that it happens to office-based executives too.
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The Chartered Management Institute's survey found that two-thirds of executives felt they were undermined by criticism, 65% suffered verbal insults and 61% were treated unfairly. In business in general, almost half of middle managers had been bullied, and about 20% of junior managers, but perhaps the most shocking result is that almost a third of directors had been bullied.
It seems rather unlikely, until you account for the fact that bullying isn't just an internal issue. Customers and clients are just as likely - and perhaps even more so in some cases - to be the bully.
Coping with bullies within your business, and tackling those that are customers or even suppliers, is a difficult task. It's often far easier to avoid dealing with it, but that is hardly likely to make the problem go away. It will only get worse.
The construction industry needs to tackle these concerns effectively. Managers need to be trained to deal confidently with bullying and the bullies. Until this happens, the issue is unlikely to improve.
In an industry that is fighting for every new recruit it can get, providing a workplace that is safe and free from bullying should surely be a given.
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