I observed these real incidents of workplace bullying

Companies boast about their working environment, employee welfare, respect, and integrity. It is probably easier for the organization to set values and put them all over their intranet site and office walls. But when it comes to follow them or implement these values, culture; many organizations fail.

Employees’ mental health is directly connected to their colleagues, managers, and overall working environment. Many employees face harassment and bullying in the workplace. Although most organizations have departments to handle work environment issues practically often, raising voice goes against the employee himself.

I am writing this article based on my experience. I want to cite some incidents I have seen.

(Note: I am not using actual names of employees in these incidents)

1st Incident — John

I was working with a company that was dealing with BDR (back and disaster recovery) and server backups. It had been around 1.5 years of my tenure in the company. Till that time, I managed to make a good grip on the product.

It was the time when John, as a fresher, joined my team; my manager asked me to train him. I was shocked when my manager asked me to give him the work around 6 pm and ask him to complete it by morning. In this way, he wanted John to stay late in the office. The manager was not concerned about work, but he probably wanted to show bossism.

It was usual for them to call the employee after leaving the office and ask them to come back and do some urgent work, which was not urgent.

After I left the company, John had his birthday on that day. He wanted to celebrate his birthday with his family. But the same manager kept him busy late on that day. John reached home after midnight. He was so upset, so he left his job in a few days.

2nd Incident — Mike

Mike was a friend of mine; one day, he had an accident. Mike had a hairline fracture in his shoulder. Even it was a hairline fracture, but if you ever had a fracture, you understand what it feels like having broken bone. Trust me; it is painful.

Mike managed to take a few days off, but he had to go office after a week. And Mike used to work with his one arm. Management was friendly on the face but did not allow him to take some time off from work.

This company was not any other small company; they are no 1 in their domain. They did not allow John to take a few days off for recovery.

I have seen, asking some challenging questions in town hall meetings caused punishments.

3rd Incident — Steve

Many people face this manager’s behavior issues, and probably it is common to not get along with your manager. But the problem is when your organization does not care about your mental health.

Steve was working with an IT company. Steve raised concerns about his manager’s behaviors, but higher management asked his manager to look into the matter. The manager started looking into the matter which was against himself, and he came out clean. My friend was punished with a lower rating and no increment for that year, for raising his voice.

After a couple of months, higher management changed, and new management smelled some team issues. They conducted an anonymous survey; the result of the survey was shocking for management. Manger tried to find out the members who have given negative reviews about the team environment.

But this story has a little happy ending. After many behavior issues reported by many people, management had to move him to another team.

These kinds of employees/managers make the work environment toxic. And many people leave the organization due to this. Organizations see the employees’ mere resources; a happy employee can perform better in the workplace.