Support for victims of bullying
New rules surrounding Health and Safety in the workplace introduced has seen the spotlight fall on the psychological health and wellbeing of employees.
Oppressive behaviour by employers is often dismissed with employees being told to toughen up.
New Zealand is rated second highest in the world with the number of complaints growing and with employers being forced to change.
Working for Culture Safe NZ, employment advocate Joanne MacLennan knows first hand how intimidating it can be for an employee to say ‘‘enough’’.
‘‘Some employers see bullying tactics as the norm and the sad thing is many are unaware they are causing distress among their workers,’’ said MacLennan.
The Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 clearly outlines what constitutes psychological harm and the Worksafe guideline defines bullying behaviour as contributing to harm.
It is the employers who are responsible to keep workers safe.
Regardless of whether employers are guilty of bullying behaviour who operate openly or covertly, ‘‘be warned, both are unacceptable,’’ MacLennan said.
‘‘Most employees put up with their bosses or colleagues who act this way until they have had enough but sadly, do not attend to the harm it has caused and eventually leave a job they love doing.’’
She said a number of victims of bullying see themselves at fault but need to understand they’re feeling this way because of the negative behaviour of others.
‘‘For some they may escape the behaviour but remain anxious when commencing a new position and are hyper sensitive to situations and will often react.’’
For others they will spend a considerable amount of time blaming themselves.
She recommends anyone who has been in this situation seek assistance.
Often when MacLennan sees clients, they are traumatised and it’s not until they start going through a list of behaviours experienced they start to understand what they have endured is not normal.
Voluntarily facilitating a pilot programme in Cambridge MacLennan wants anyone experiencing bullying behaviour in the workplace to be included into a free confidential group programme to meet regularly and articulate their issues.