Bullying in the contact centre

Our industry is in the market of providing a positive experience for our customers. Contact Centres quite simply, provide a service for the caller, whether that is providing train times, or placing an order for concrete blocks. They should be places of knowledge and information. A hub of best practice around customer interaction, effective processes and an environment which fosters career development and workplace fulfilment. I have been in my fair share or environments where it was the complete opposite. Where staff were nervous about speaking out, who were afraid of questioning processes and where staff there threatened with their jobs on a regular basis.

I used to work in an environment like that. The funny thing is that I didn't even know it was happening until I was out of the company. In hindsight, I experienced all of the tell-tale signs of bullying. Now, my experience can identify an environment fairly quickly. Oddly enough, bullies will also do a very good job of covering their tracks, so knowing who the bullies are is not immediately obvious if you are on the outside looking in.

What is Bullying

Bullying is commonly defined as an intentional and habitual pattern of offensive and threatening behaviour to others. I use the word habitual intentionally, as the bully is this way because of serious self-confidence issues within themselves. And therefore has learned this behaviour to compensate their own confidence and esteem issues.

It's important to note that bullying is rarely used as a method to get things done by a superior. It is a method, however to gain an emotional "upper hand" and to bring fear and vulnerability to the recipient. It's more about control for the bully. This can be done in many ways such as comments made in front of others, rumours and emails. Other forms of bullying behaviour are:

• Distorts truth and reality
• Charming in public - two faced
• Blames others for errors
• Bullies tend to be insecure people
• A bully doesn't want to hear the other side of the story
• Does not try to understand or get another point of view
• A bully needs to control people
• Makes inappropriate comments about appearance, lifestyle
• Takes credit for others work

Usually, the targets of bullies are simply those people where they may threatened by them. This could take the form of a competent or popular subordinate. In the majority of cases, the bully is always a superior or your line manager. Bullies can be either male or female.

Examples of Bullying behaviour:

• Threatens to terminate your employment
• Bad evaluations
• Makes your life difficult
• Punishes for petty things
• Suggests you have emotional problems
• Demeans your role
• Yells and screams at you
• Suggests you are incompetent
• Suggests you are too sensitive
• A bully will misinterpret what you say to make you look bad
• May exclude you from meetings etc
• Overwork with unreasonable timelines
• Fails to return your calls

How do you know if you are being bullied?

As I said earlier, I didn't even know I was being bullied until I was out of the organisation. I constantly doubted my abilities and/or my confidence in doing the job. Some other tell tale signs are:

• You feel strained
• You find yourself walking on eggshells
• You are quieter than usual
• You go out of your way to avoid the bully
• You are afraid to open your mouth in front of this person
• You pretend to get along with this person
• You choose your words carefully when around this person
• Your making more errors on the job
• A bully usually picks on a person that is non-confrontational

These symptoms might not all be there at the moment. And don't forget that bullying can also happen within other layers of management. The worst thing to do is to do nothing. Continuous bullying can sometimes lead to variants of post traumatic stress disorder or other psychological illnesses. It is vital to talk to people about this and to share a common understanding.

What can you do about it?

Fortunately the law has established very good precedents around bullying in the workplace, placing responsibility squarely on the company's HR department. However, depending on the company's culture, the company could close ranks and acrimoniously force you out. This has happened before and there have been many high profile cases where plaintiffs have won hundreds of thousands of pounds as a result.

Having said all of this, in many cases its simply a frank discussion with the bully tends to diffuse the situation. By indicating to the bully that you have far more confidence in yourself will likely force the bully to look elsewhere for their targets. Consider the following actions when trying to confront a bully:

• Tell someone you trust in the business about the bully
• Keep a journal about the events of the bully that effected you (i.e. things said in meetings, comments made, etc…). Save all emails and correspondence.
• Confront the bully with a witness. Making it clear that if the problem persists you will need to address it with the company's HR department.
• Use clear comments when responding to a bully such as:
• Your calling me names instead of addressing the problem is unacceptable.
• If you are so angry that you cannot communicate in a calm manner than let's wait and discuss this at another time.

What happens next?

The most important thing you can do is to talk to someone about it. Remember, the law, and most HR departments are on your side. The single thing that can shut down a bully is to demonstrate that you are more confident than them. If this fails, report it upwards, and keep records of all the events. Remember, you are not alone and there are many others who can help.

Absolutely no one show be bullied at work. I hope that some of these suggestions that I have mentioned will give you the courage to take action.

Source: Michigan Technological University