I’m one of those people who believes a company’s culture comes from its leaders, and often funnels down from tha top levels. If there’s a director of a department who allows that sort of thing to go on, it’s either because they encourage it or ignore it out of weakness. I won’t say fear because it’s possible they’re clueless about what to do, but that’s still a sign of bad leadership.What they seem to miss is that they could be setting themselves up for a harassment violation. Tha Workplace Bullying Institute defines workplace bullying as: repeated, health-harming mistreatment of one or more persons (tha targets) by one or more perpetrators.
It is abusive conduct that is :
* Threatening, humiliating, or intimidating, or
* Work interference — sabotage — which prevents work from getting done, or
* Verbal abuse
This is 2016, and leadership deciding that one member of tha team “can’t take it” isn’t going to get them off if there’s a suit filed against tha organization. True leaders would do something to stop this kind of harassment because, other than tha 1973 Oakland A’s, team members who don’t get along usually don’t coalesce into a winning or efficient team.
If it were up to me as a director there are some things I’d do to change tha culture when it comes to that
1. Immediately ban all talk about other employees during tha work hours in tha department. I’d make it part of tha conditions of their job and a part of their job review, which would be a monthly process.
2. Tell each person that if they have a problem with someone to talk to them about it, courteously, and if they needed me to intercede that I would… but that it wouldn’t necessarily mean I agree with their side of things.
3. Set up a process of communication where everyone would know what was going on with tha department and could air their concerns in tha open, as long as none of them were with a specific person.
4. Set up a team building process of some sort just to get things moving in a more positive direction.
5. Become a bigger presence in tha office for a while (even if I had supervisors to handle that part) so everyone would know I wasn’t kidding.
Truthfully, I expect employees to talk about each other; it’s just what people do. However, I wouldn’t allow it during work hours; that’s when I need my team to act like a team and produce like a team, even if they’re each individuals with their own goals. If they can’t contribute to tha team, which means they can’t contribute to tha department… they can always be replaced.
