A recent post asked for advice on how to deal with bullying at work. Here’s our reply.
First, what is a bully?
A bully is someone who hurts or frightens someone else, often over a period of time. Bullying can be physical, such as actual attacks to your person, or causes distress and discomfort through language and attitude.
Even ‘small’ things can be a physical attack, such as pinching you or pulling your hair.
They might force them to do something that they do not want to do – for example, forcing you to do paper shredding even though the sound of the shredder causes sensory issues for you and this task could be given to someone else.
Or they may make a loud noise behind you, knowing it will scare you and distress you – perhaps insisting it is a ‘joke’ and you need to not take it ‘seriously.’
Bullying is not against the law, and it may well be this factor that makes bullying one of the most consistent issues of difficulty for autistic individuals in the workplace. Although the examples of physical attack we gave would count as assault under UK law.
Bullying can be direct and open or indirect and more underhand. Indirect bullying can be harder to prove as there may be less evidence to report to others.
Examples of direct bullying are:
- Rude remarks;
- Jokes or remarks about your disability;
- Insulting you in the way they speak and behave towards you;
- Overbearing supervision or other misuse of power or position;
- Unwelcome sexual advances – this could be touching you, or standing too close to you while showing or displaying something that you find offensive;
- Humiliating you in front of other colleagues;
- Actual physical abuse.
Examples of indirect bullying are:
- Not being put forward for training or promotion;
- Persistently criticising your performance;
- Setting you tasks or deadlines that you are never going to be able to meet;
- Leaving you out or not inviting you to team social events;
- Spreading malicious rumours about you;
Bullying might not just be done face-to-face – it could happen in emails or other written documents to you, over the phone, or by being unfairly monitored for something when none of your colleagues are being singled out for the same kind of treatment.
Five Things You Can Do If You Think You Are Being Bullied
Talk to a Friend: Find someone you trust inside or outside of work and tell them what you think is happening. It is helpful to gain a second opinion and clarify what is happening.
Keep a Diary of Events: Initially, it may seem that things that happen are not that big of a deal. However, if things are consistently happening, being able to look at them all together will give you a clear picture of the situation. It will also help, if you need to make a formal complaint, to have a log of all that has happened to show it was not an isolated issue.
Talk to The Bully: If you feel safe and confident to do so, speak directly to the bully about how you feel about their behaviour and how it affects you. In some cases, the bully may have not realised what they were doing, or they may back down – bullies seldom like to be called out on their behaviour.
Arrange a Meeting With Your Employer: Your employer has a duty of care to help and support all their employees and are required to take any action that is appropriate. However, you can also talk to a Union representative, who will listen to your concerns in complete confidence.
Ask For Help: There are several organisations that can offer help and support. ACAS are an arbitration service who offer advice, guidance and in some case, intervention. The Citizens Advice Service can also help.
We hope this blog post was informative and gave you steps to take if you are being bullied in the workplace.
(This post was written by Ella Griffin our Head of PR and Phil Bilzon our Head of Training & Development.)
Autistic Nottingham 