Does workplace bullying lie dormant while non-essential employees work remotely during the COVID-19 pandemic?

Researchers define workplace bullying as the “persistent exposure to interpersonal aggression and mistreatment from colleagues, superiors, or subordinates.”* A 2017 Workplace Bullying Institute U.S. Workforce Bullying survey found that 19 percent of America’s workers are bullied, and an additional 19 percent are bystanders who witness the bullying, for a total of 60.4 million American workers affected by workplace bullying. Victims of workplace bullying may experience “having gossip or rumors spread about them, being ignored or socially isolated, or having their work humiliated and ridiculed in front of colleagues,”* to name a few examples.

The answer to the question is no because bullying does not require face-to-face interactions, in order to affect adversely the targeted employee or victim. Workplace bullying can take place face-to-face, but it can also exist as cyberbullying via email or social media. While workplace bullying creates a hostile work environment for both the targeted employee (or victim) and bystanders, it can also make working remotely difficult for the victim. If a targeted employee already feels isolated at work, working remotely can add to their feelings of isolation, especially if they perceive that they are being excluded from information sharing and regular communication.

 The bullying behaviors, which the targeted employee experienced at the physical location of work, can also be experienced online when using software tools that facilitate remote work and communication: videoconferencing, chat rooms, document sharing, scheduling, and project/team management. For example, bullies can exclude the victim from participating in the videoconferencing by not sending an invitation with login credentials to the victim. Bullies can withhold pertinent documents that the victim needs, in order to perform their work tasks effectively. Successful remote work requires information sharing and communication between management and employees and within teams.

Recognizing that bullying can also take place while employees work remotely, leadership can develop remote work policies that delineate acceptable and unacceptable employee behaviors while using online communication tools, and that harassment of any kind, including bullying, will not be tolerated by leadership. These policies will also include accountability systems and procedures for employees to report work harassment. If leadership does not already have an effective anti-harassment policy, now is a good time to develop one that will include both physical location and remote work.

Notes:

*Einarsen, S., Hoel, H., & Notelears, G. (2009). Measuring exposure to bullying and harassment at work: Validity, factor structure and psychometric properties of the Negative Acts Questionnaire-Revised. Work & Stress, 23(1), 22-44.