A risk management tool that many companies use is an incident report form. It allows you to measure incident rates, severity and responses to workplace injury. Yet, how many of you record workplace bullying incidents measuring the risk?
Some years back, I was faced with a situation where one of my team accused another of bullying. She clearly spoke of a risk to her health and safety. She did not want to lodge a grievance, but wanted me to know it had occurred. Knowing there was an injury risk, I had to decide on the best course of action.
I learnt I was hesitant to record her potential psychological injury. Would she be judged because of it? After all, psychological injury can have a significant stigma attached. But these were my fears, not the hers.
However, not documenting it would result in the potential risk not being measured and also hidden in our workplace. I would have no hesitation if this was a physical injury.
In the end, I decided to lodge the incident report. My team member was pleased that I had documented her claim.
We need to break the mould if we are going to effectively tackle workplace bullying. It requires the maturity to see beyond fears to document and measure it.
Do you document workplace bullying incidents? If not, what’s stopping you?