Bullying in the Workplace has been tolerated for far too long. It’s time we do something about it.
Bullying which can manifest as harassment or discrimination is tough to stop. This is because it’s hard to get any behavior to stop. We are all creatures of habit. Habits are hard to break. Harassment/discrimination and bullying are habits. People who do them don’t even necessarily understand that they are doing something wrong. It’s just how they learned to behave. And yes, that’s very sad.
The problem is that any attempt to get a bully to stop will almost always result in retaliation. Retaliation is predicted in the behavioral model. The good news is that even though this behavior is predicted that doesn’t mean we have to tolerate it.
Bullying is a learned behavior and it can be unlearned. Decades of research by behavioral scientists have taught us what works and what doesn’t to get unwanted behaviors to stop. It’s time we start applying that knowledge to the problem of bullying in the workplace.
The fact that we don’t have to tolerate harassment/bullying makes it all the more important that we start actively teaching these skills to our employees. You can’t teach what you don’t know. The first step is to learn what the specific skills are that work and why they work so that you can then teach them to your supervisors and your staff. In that order.
Imagine what the average workplace would be like if there were no bullies. We have been tolerating bullies in our workplaces for far too long because we didn’t know there was an alternative. Now that we do, it’s time we put the knowledge we have to work to get it to stop.
My company Humanist Learning Systems offers a variety of bullying and harassment training programs to teach the behavioral psychology techniques required to get bullies to stop. Learn more at: https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/
Bullying which can manifest as harassment or discrimination is tough to stop. This is because it’s hard to get any behavior to stop. We are all creatures of habit. Habits are hard to break. Harassment/discrimination and bullying are habits. People who do them don’t even necessarily understand that they are doing something wrong. It’s just how they learned to behave. And yes, that’s very sad.
The problem is that any attempt to get a bully to stop will almost always result in retaliation. Retaliation is predicted in the behavioral model. The good news is that even though this behavior is predicted that doesn’t mean we have to tolerate it.
Bullying is a learned behavior and it can be unlearned. Decades of research by behavioral scientists have taught us what works and what doesn’t to get unwanted behaviors to stop. It’s time we start applying that knowledge to the problem of bullying in the workplace.
The fact that we don’t have to tolerate harassment/bullying makes it all the more important that we start actively teaching these skills to our employees. You can’t teach what you don’t know. The first step is to learn what the specific skills are that work and why they work so that you can then teach them to your supervisors and your staff. In that order.
Imagine what the average workplace would be like if there were no bullies. We have been tolerating bullies in our workplaces for far too long because we didn’t know there was an alternative. Now that we do, it’s time we put the knowledge we have to work to get it to stop.
My company Humanist Learning Systems offers a variety of bullying and harassment training programs to teach the behavioral psychology techniques required to get bullies to stop. Learn more at: https://humanistlearning.com/category/bullyingharassment/
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