Prevention and intervention of workplace harassment

The European Agency for Safety and Health at Work has proposed a series of general recommendations to prevent workplace harassment, and considers that the prevention of mobbing is a basic element to improve working life and avoid social exclusion, and considers the adoption of measures in a phase early to avoid a destructive work environment, so employers should not wait for complaints from employers. victims. Keep reading this Psychology-Online article if you want to know more about the prevention and intervention of workplace harassment.

Given these intentions of the European Agency, it seems obvious that it will be necessary a mature involvement, responsible and ethically committed of companies and workers. The specific proposals of the European Agency are:

• Offer each worker the possibility to choose the way to carry out their work.
• Reduce the volume of monotonous and repetitive jobs.
• Increase information on objectives.
• Develop the democratic style of leadership.
• Avoid unclear specifications of functions and tasks.

Recommendations for creating an organizational culture with norms and values against workplace harassment are the following:

• Promote the dissemination of the meaning of workplace harassment.
• Investigate the scope and nature of the workplace harassment problem.
• Formulate clear guidelines to promote positive social interaction that includes:

1. The ethical commitment, both by the employer and the workers, to promote an environment free from harassment.
2. Explain the types of actions that are acceptable and those that are not.
3. Establish the values ​​and norms of the organization and the consequences and sanctions for non-compliance with the norms.
4. Indicate where and how victims can get help.
5. Guarantee the right to complain without retaliation.
6. Explain the procedure for making complaints.
7. Specify the role of the director, supervisor, contact-support partner and union representatives.
8. Provide data from advisory services.
9. Make help available to the victim and the harasser.
10. Maintain confidentiality.
11. Do not unnecessarily expose the victim to confrontations with the aggressor.
12. Listen to both parties objectively and without bias.

Therefore, it is convenient set some goals:

• Carry out an effective distribution of norms and values ​​at all levels of the organization, for example, through personnel manuals, informational meetings, newsletters, etc.
• Ensure ways to resolve conflicts objectively and democratically.
• Ensure that all employees know and respect the norms and values ​​of the organization.
• Improve management's responsibility and competence in dealing with conflict and communication.
• Establish independent contacts with workers.
• Involve workers and their representatives in risk assessment and prevention of workplace harassment.

About half of the workers subjected to mobbing refer to psychological or physical sequelae. Therefore, if situations of workplace harassment are detected, one should not wait for damage to manifest itself to establish preventive strategies. In this sense, some faGood prognosis indicators for workplace bullying:

• The short duration of the bullying, or stopping it as soon as possible.
• The low intensity or frequency of the harassment.
• Social and family support.
• The breakdown of helplessness and paralysis, through an active coping strategy.

There are some factors that increase the worker effectiveness to face the mobbing (Leymannn, 1996):

• The good physical and mental shape.
• Self confidence.
• The support of the family and social environment.
• Economic stability.
• The ability to solve problems and dexterity in social skills.

Pérez Bilbao (2001) points out that the personality of the victims seems relevant in the way to face the mobbing, and that coping behaviors to solve the problem and to control emotional reactions are more effective than avoidance behaviors.

Regarding the survival of workplace harassment, we could say that they have two different parts; on the one hand, that of strategies for coping with mobbing, and, on the other, the treatment of the consequences that these behaviors have caused in the victim. The most frequently derived pathologies have already been seen of mobbing, whose pharmacological treatment, when required, should not be different from similar conditions, regardless of the cause that originated them.

Here are some suggested strategies that can be useful to overcome the mobbing:

• Identify the problem of mobbing, learning and training on the subject.
• Document and record the harassment behaviors that are the object as soon as possible.
• Make public the harassment behaviors that are received in privacy and in secret, and communicate them to colleagues, bosses, managers, advisers, family and friends.
• Carry out emotional deactivation, avoiding reacting with attacks.
• Control and channel anger and resentment (anger is the bully's ally).
• Be assertive, respond to slander and destructive criticism, although without passivity or aggressiveness.
• Protect the data, documents and files of the worker himself, distrusting the manipulative capacities of the harassers.
• Avoid social isolation, socializing and doing leisure activities.
• Avoid self-incrimination, and if it occurs use extrojection mechanisms.
• Do not try to convince or change the harasser.
• Do not fall into inhibition, nor in paralysis, talking about harassment and expressing the emotions (laughter, crying) that their behavior provokes.
• Increase professional training and keep up-to-date, taking training and retraining courses.
• Request medical help, psychological and legal, to design the therapeutic plan with prevention measures, drug treatment, sick leave, etc., and the legal approach.
• Ignore the stalker as a form of final liberation.

In addition, companies should favor:

• Social support to the affected party through a trusted colleague, the company doctor, the occupational risk prevention service or in the extra-work environment.
• Recognition by the organization that these phenomena can exist.
• The planning and design of social relationships in the company as part of its corporate culture.
• The possibility of having within the company a assistance service to the workers.
• Attention to job design deficiencies, to the behavior of leaders and to the social protection of the person through clear, written and public rules on conflict resolution.
• The elaboration of an action protocol for the prevention and care in the event of workplace harassment.

Cope with mobbing carries an important personal effort and go through several phases since it requires the identification of the problem as mobbing, emotional deactivation, which consists of recognizing, analyzing, confronting and dismantling defense mechanisms such as introjection (self-incrimination) and denial. Once these mechanisms are deactivated, one must be in a position to face and respond to the behaviors and perversions of the harasser, without developing feelings of guilt or shame; that is, extrojecting guilt, cultivating assertiveness and communication skills, and recovering self-esteem and self-confidence (Viana and Gil, 2003)

This article is merely informative, in Psychology-Online we do not have the power to make a diagnosis or recommend a treatment. We invite you to go to a psychologist to treat your particular case.