Bullying at work
Bullying in the workplace has been described in various ways. The Health and Safety Authority’s definition is that it is:
"repeated inappropriate behaviour, direct or indirect, whether verbal, physical or otherwise, conducted by one or more persons against another or others, at the place of work and/or in the course of employment, which could reasonably be regarded as undermining the individual‘s right to dignity at work."
An isolated incident of the behaviour described in this definition may be an affront to dignity at work but as a once off incident is not considered to be bullying.
(Code of Practice on the Prevention and Management of Workplace Bullying, 2007 )
Destructive behaviour
Bullying is a form of destructive behaviour, aimed at a person or group, usually by one person, whose aim is to undermine and abuse the target, to make him or her look and feel inferior to others.
It is done for various reasons, not all known or readily observable to us. It’s usually done subtly, as the perpetrator realises that if others see him or her behaving in a bullying way, it will have the reverse effect of making him or her (perpetrator) look bad.
The intention is to focus negative attention on the target individual. It is a type of passive aggression, in that is seldom involves physical acts of violence, but instead relies on indirect acts which will ultimately hurt the target, psychologically and emotionally.
Examples
Examples of behaviour that may constitute bullying are as follows:
Purposely undermining someone;
Targeting someone for special negative treatment;
Manipulation of an individual‘s reputation;
Social exclusion or isolation;
Intimidation;
Aggressive or obscene language;
Jokes that are obviously offensive to one individual by spoken word or email;
Intrusion by pestering, spying and stalking;
Unreasonable assignments to duties which are obviously unfavourable to one individual;
Repeated requests with impossible deadline or impossible tasks.
For more go to the link below http://www.hsa.ie/eng/Work_Safely/Workplace_Health/Bullying/