What happens when an organisation is made aware of workplace bullying?
Do people who have the courage to stand up against workplace bullying find themselves supported or silenced by the very people who are supposed to be there to help?
This episode tells the second part of Jane’s experience. Jane isn’t her real name, and her voice has been disguised because, like many others, fear of retaliation means she wanted to speak anonymously.
In the previous episode, we heard how Jane - an experienced HR professional trying to help her organisation learn and improve its culture - found herself becoming the target of workplace bullying.
We heard about process failures in her complaint, the impact on her physical and psychological health, and the outcome of an independent investigation which upheld the allegations she’d made.
Armed with these investigation findings, Jane just wanted to get back into the workplace and get her career back on track as an HR professional, supporting others and making a difference.
Listen now
How did Jane feel about the prospect of maybe having to find a role somewhere else?
Or would her own organisation respond positively to upheld investigation findings, and help her return to work, restoring relationships, learning from the investigation findings and building a safer, more respectful workplace?
Listen now to hear from Jane about what happened next.
Lessons for leaders responding to complaints
Jane’s experience, from both of the last two episodes, provides a whole range of important lessons to learn from.
If you want to make change in your workplace culture, that doesn’t come from being defensive and taking harmful action against complainants who’ve already been harmed.
Jane’s made it clear in telling her story - based on an extensive HR career - that the solutions to workplace incivility, bullying and harassment come from:
fixing the workplace
preventing problems happening, and
being honest enough to learn lessons when they do.
That’s a very different approach to taking advantage of the inherent power imbalance that ends up causing people further harm and - if you’re using non-disclosure agreements - prevents them from seeking the help they need to recover from their experiences.
When an organisation acts to harm people it’s supposed to protect, that’s called “institutional betrayal”.
You’ll hear more about that in a future episode, so keep Jane’s story in mind when that one comes around.
Chapter markers
Time code
Content
00:00
Introduction
02:06
Process theory versus harmful reality
04:47
Faith in taking action and learning?
07:57
What happens to complainants?
12:41
Organisation responses to investigation findings
18:10
The harmful impact of non-disclosure agreements
24:12
Prevention is better than cure: learning means listening
27:24
Lessons for leaders and HR practitioners: humanity, apology, integrity
Workright23 is a New Zealand charitable trust dedicated to helping people affected by workplace bullying, and to educating and assisting organisations to identify and tackle workplace bullying amongst their employees.
Episode 4 was published on Wednesday 4th September 2024.