EDITORIAL | WORKPLACE HEALTH & SAFETY
THE IMPACT OF BULLYING
BEYOND THE WORKPLACE
MAUREEN KYNE
Maureen Kyne and Associates
B
ullying is the key health and safety risk
of our time. It affects anyone in any
job, in any industry and across all levels
of employment. But the casualties often
extend beyond the workplace.
From the many workshops and investigations
I have conducted or attended, it is apparent
that those who are connected to the
workplace via the target or the perpetrator
suffer in ways that are not taken into
consideration.
Over the last 12 years of providing workplace
behaviour training, I have learned how
bullying in the workplace can also affect
the immediate family, the extended family
and the broader community. I have been
told on a number of occasions that the
person being bullied had become physically
violent with his or her loved ones to the
extent of hospitalising them. These are the
true casualties of bullying and harassing
behaviour.
Hearing these stories drives my passion
to change how we manage bullying and
inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.
LET’S RECAP
Most of us would agree that taking the stress
of what is happening in the workplace out on
our loved ones is inexcusable.
When a person is being bullied in the
workplace it changes the psychological
and physiological wellbeing of the person
targeted.
Workplace bullying has a profound effect
on all aspects of a person’s health as well
as their work and family life, undermining
self-esteem, productivity, relationships and
morale. It is an area that is rarely talked
about or even addressed. The impacts of
14 Spring 2017
bullying can be extreme with its effects
extending into all areas of a target’s day-to-
day life. impacts families through damage to the
target’s emotional and physical health and,
subsequently, to financial well-being.
BULLIED WORKERS SUFFER ‘BATTLE
STRESS’ In the workplace, the cumulative nature of
bullying erodes the target’s defences and
begins to traumatise the target.
Targets of workplace bullying display
similar psychological symptoms to soldiers
who have experienced combat situations,
according to research by psychologist Dr
Noreen Tehrani, Chair Elect of the British
Psychological Society’s Crisis, Disaster and
Trauma Psychology Section.
According to her research, one in five
people who have experienced bullying at
work exhibited the main symptoms of Post-
Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD).
The symptoms displayed by people
who have been in conflict situations and
workplaces where bullying happens are
strikingly similar.
Both groups suffer nightmares, are jumpy
and seem fuelled by too much adrenaline. In
addition, they show greater susceptibility to
illnesses, heart disease and alcoholism.
Melbourne-based health psychologist, Toni
Mellington, reported in InPsych magazine,
“People (targets of bullying) don’t often
recognise what’s going wrong with them,
they know they are feeling bad and their
health is deteriorating but they cannot
actually put their finger on what’s going on.
And, that’s often because of the subtleties
of the workplace bullying. It is common for
a ta rget of a workplace bully to internalise
what’s going on and to believe that they have
caused the behaviour that they are being
exposed to.”
It is a known fact that bullying indirectly
At home, the target at first keeps the
shameful secret private. It is not long before
the psychological violence goes home with
the target and affects the family, impacting
on a once stable, safe place.
ADVERSE HEALTH EFFECTS
Stress from work can increase cardiovascular
disease, such as high blood pressure
and heart disease. Studies now link work
stress to an increased risk of stroke and,
frighteningly, working age women are
amongst those hardest hit.
One study showed that women who were
under constant stress were 33 per cent more
likely to have a stroke. Another concluded
that women over 40 experience the highest
risk, with stroke the fifth leading cause of
death of women aged 45-64 years.
In closing this article, it is the responsibility
of all those in leadership roles to manage
bullying behaviour in its very early stages
before it escalates and adversely affects
others.
At Maureen Kyne and Associates, we
specialise in helping organisations with
prevention strategies to eliminate bullying and
inappropriate behaviour.
For more information, contact:
t. 1300 136 146
m. 0437 022 246
e. [email protected]
w. www.maureenkyne.com.au