What We Are Will Show in What We Do. Adult Bullies: Take a Stand.

Workplace mobbing is emotional abuse. Period.  Joyce is a productive and innovative employee, who has lots of bright ideas that many in the company find threatening.  Paula decides she doesn’t like Joyce because she feels threatened by her, so enlists her co-workers by spreading rumors and falsehoods about her – thereby humiliating and discrediting her among others.  Workplace mobbing isn’t just done by front-lines – often management takes part of it as well so Joyce feels she has no place to turn.  She decides to quit the company.

Workplace mobbing often happens when an individual joins the company who has ideas and thoughts that run counter to the ingrained culture of the organization.  Employees are comfortable within the status quo and do not want change.  However, Joyce is the very person they need to move forward and grow – instead of trying to find common ground and seeing if there is validity in what Joyce suggests – the company isolates her instead.

Workplace mobbing doesn’t just happen to new employees either – it can happen to an employee who has recently received a promotion with higher levels of accountability and authority – or someone who was once their peer who is now their boss.  Those who were passed over for the promotion, start analyzing and picking apart everything that their new boss does and actively tries to sabotage them in their new role.

Any form of workplace mobbing is a symptom of a poorly managed organization.  It occurs in many types of organization, but may flourish in a bureaucratic environment.  These are the same companies that espouse “workplace safety” and have “rules” in place to protect their workforce.  Make no mistake about it – workplace mobbing is a safety and health issue. 

Instead of quitting, Joyce decides to approach HR about the mobbing that she has been experiencing – only to find that HR invalidates her feelings and labels it a “personality conflict” with no real protection for Joyce or consequences for Paula and others that are involved in the mob.  Bad behavior is overlooked.  The company then looks around and can’t understand why they have a toxic culture.

One defense against workplace mobbing is to document everything – even if you think it is trivial to show a pattern of attacks.  This gives more leverage with those in a senior position within the company – especially if management is involved.  Because if management says that you are not performing – well it must be true and others on the management team begin to believe the lies as well.  This mobbing can lead to poor performance reviews and eventual dismissal from the company.  Most importantly, by documenting everything and making sure you have a copy of all events – it gives you legal recourse later should you need to go that route. 

The best thing for Joyce was to leave the company and find a work environment that supports and values her hard work.  What do you think?

Idea Share Tip of the Month!

An employee idea system promotes conversation between employees and their managers about their jobs and how to improve them.  As they fine-tune these processes more teamwork and trust occurs; building the employee – management relationship.

Sign up for the Idea Share Tip of the Week! at Frame of Mind Consulting

Frame of Mind Consulting understands the unique DNA of your organization, which is necessary to turn any organization into one capable of leveraging the full idea potential of its employees.  Would you like to drive connectivity and ownership throughout your company?  Contact Page at (860) 559-7942 to set up your complimentary consultation during which you will receive some invaluable tips that you can apply to your business right away.

Is Your Business Aligned for Idea Generation?

Page A. Thibault, MBA

Many ideas are born and lost in isolation.  Think of ideas you have had that were never developed or implemented due to poor communication, lack of buy-in or just plain ineffective execution. An employee idea system is not a put into place and leave it type of program.  You must actively manage and control your organization’s platform to harness your employee ideas and to execute those ideas effectively.  Productivity is not just about how efficiently we work – but depends on our ability to make an impact on what matters most.

An employee idea is the spark of imagination that represents only one percent of the idea’s potential and passage.  The other 99 percent is the process needed to develop the capacity for employee ideas to develop.  Without a process for employee ideas, then each idea is handled on an ad hoc basis.  When ideas are handled ad hoc, there are many distractions that can derail our ideas.  For example:  deadlines, budgets, clients and a myriad of other constraints.  Therefore, we need structure to capture and arrange ideas in a way that allows them to build upon one another in a helpful manner.

Structure allows us to agree on how to respond to and implement ideas consistently – which in turn results in less confusion for your organization.  Many employee ideas have a cross-functional component, as well as differing levels of organizational responsibility; therefore, having structure in place simplifies implementation that may otherwise be complex and unwieldy. Collaboration is the binding force that brings several small sparks together to drive innovation and allows you to successfully adapt to the continual changes that occur in and around your organization. Teamwork and collaboration thrive in environments where tasks and methods are clearly defined.   In today’s competitive environment it is no longer enough to simply be more efficient or cheaper than your competition – you must transform your ideas into a unique differentiator that outperforms your competition!

Idea Share of the Month!

When designing your employee idea system, you must take into account your organization’s unique culture!  A cookie cutter idea system that layers on top of existing management and lacks in scope and depth will most likely fail resulting in a more disengaged workforce.

To sign up for Page’s Idea Share Tip of the Week! Please visit Frame of Mind Consulting.