I recently read an article in the March 7th edition of People magazine titled “LEAN on ME” written by Joanne Fowler. This Bullying Prevention piece featured middle school and high school kids who were paired up as a part of their school’s on-going zero-tolerance approach to bullying. The article showcases mentoring as a method for bullying prevention. The older students are former bullies who are spending time counseling the younger students who feel the need to bully today.
Bullying isn’t just taking place in schools. Have you ever experienced workplace bullying? Unfortunately, I have. It was one of my first “real” jobs and I didn’t know what to do about it. I was confused and unsure if I was experiencing bullying, or if this was just the way the corporate world worked. I confided in co-workers who sympathized with me and tried to offer me advice, but none of it worked.
Workplace bullying is something you can confide in your mentor.
Much like the high school student, the role of the corporate mentor is not to approach the bully for you. Instead the mentor’s role is to counsel you and guide you in the right direction and assist you in taking the steps that are necessary to take action against the bully.
If you do not have a mentor at work, tell someone in your HR Department about the bullying. Chances are good that if this person is bullying you, they are or have bullied someone else as well. Eventually my bully was fired, but I suffered a lot longer than I needed to because I did not know what to do.
Do you feel if you had a corporate mentor you would confide workplace bullying? I’d love to hear your comments below.