One of the first things visitors notice when they enter the Irvine, Calif., offices of Bryan Cave LLP is the granite plaque etched with the law firm’s 10-point code of civility.The gray slab, displayed in the law firm’s reception area, proclaims that employees always say please and thank you, welcome feedback and acknowledge the contributions of others.Such rules may seem more at home in a kindergarten than a law firm, but Stuart Price, a longtime partner, says they serve as a daily reminder to keep things civil at work.
Incivility—and its more extreme cousin, bullying—is becoming a bigger problem in workplaces. Nearly two-thirds of Americans reported that they were bullied at work last year, up from roughly half of workers in 1998, according to research conducted by Christine Porath, a management professor at Georgetown University’s McDonough School of Business. These people reported they were “treated rudely at least once a month” by bosses or co-workers in the past year—which Prof. Porath defined as being bullied.
Bullying costs companies in ways large and small, cutting into productivity and turning off customers, management experts say. Workplace behavior is under the microscope after recent allegations of sexual harassment in Hollywood, technology and media. Some companies have found, as a result of investigations into harassment claims, that bullying and boorish behavior are more common than suspected.
Last month, The Wall Street Journal reported that Fidelity Investmentshired a consulting firm to review all workplace behavior, including within its stock-picking unit, after some employees complained about disparaging remarks about appearance, sexual innuendo toward women and bullying of both genders. The complaints have led to the termination of at least three portfolio managers in the past six years, people familiar with the firings said. Fidelity has encouraged employees in recent weeks to report workplace abuse without fear of retribution, company spokesman Vincent Loporchio said. “We have no tolerance for this type of behavior, and simply do not, and will not, stand for this from anyone.”
In Hollywood, after multiple allegations of sexual harassment led to the ouster of Harvey Weinstein from the movie studio he ran with his brother, The Journal reported that Bob Weinstein has been a volatile boss who belittled and bullied employees over the years, according to people who worked for him.
A Weinstein Co. spokesman didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Managers know there can be a fine line between a tough boss who gets results and a bully. According to one rule of thumb that human-resources consultant Fran Sepler tells her clients, feedback focused exclusively on improving an employee’s conduct or quality of work will rarely be seen as bullying. “It’s okay to set high standards and reinforce those standards,” Ms. Sepler says.
Prof. Porath’s research indicates the toll bullying can take on workers. In one of her studies, an experimenter belittled participants, who then performed 33% worse on word puzzles and generated 39% fewer creative ideas during a brainstorming task.
Work environments with large numbers of young employees, significant power disparities or where a few stars bring in a lot of business all are conditions that can give rise to bullying, a 2016 Equal Employment Opportunity Commission task force report on workplace harassment concluded. The task force recommended employers set up systems where employees can report bad behavior, sometimes via a third party.
Riot Games Inc., maker of the popular League of Legends computer game, has taken an active approach to rooting out bullies. Worried that incivility in its games might scare off players and even tarnish its workplace, managers analyzed the chat logs of more than 1,800 current employees who played its most popular game.
The company says it found a link between employees who exhibited toxic game play and those who had been fired in the previous year. Riot Games now asks job candidates for their in-game identities during recruiting, and considers applicants’ game-playing conduct when making hiring decisions. Ousting an office bully can be time-consuming and legally tough. A few years ago, Sindy Warren, an employment lawyer and consultant, was called in to investigate bullying at the Midwest offices of a large, international packaged-food company after human resources received complaints that a business unit’s new leader was abusive to subordinates. Employees, fearing retaliation, were reluctant to talk at first, Ms. Warren recalls. Once they opened up, they described a boss who screamed, swore and belittled colleagues publicly, she said. Ms. Warren often recommends coaching for workplace bullies, but in this case she advised the company to fire the executive. The damage was so bad that the executive could no longer lead effectively, she said.
Before Bryan Cave posted its civility code, “we may have been doing things that we later agreed were not civil,” Mr. Price said, such as taking credit for subordinates’ work or sending blistering emails to colleagues. He knew the code of conduct had real meaning after staff members told him that a senior lawyer directed a loud outburst at a colleague. Mr. Price spoke with the man and asked him to deliver a face-to-face apology to everyone who had heard the meltdown. Making rules for office civility has emboldened people to speak up when rules are broken, Mr. Price said. “Had we not written the code, it’s very possible that I would not have heard of it.”
Companies should definitely consider monitoring relationships in the workplace to my believe. As said in the article, a lot of employees who are bullied do not speak up due to the fear implied into them. Bullying in the workplace will always change the efficiency of the employees costing the company money. Therefor, companies/work places should invest money into their employees happiness while on the job.
https://www.wsj.com/articles/companies-wake-up-to-the-problem-of-bullies-at-work-1510758000
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