On “Real Time with IPELRA,” the podcast of the Illinois Public Employer Labor Relations Association, Labor and Employment partner Amy Gaylord suggested to employers how they might prevent and address workplace bullying. Workplace bullying can be as bad or worse than harassment or other kinds of forbidden workplace behavior.
Gaylord suggested three elements of a good anti-bullying stance:
- “Have managers and supervisors set a good example; have them treat their colleagues and subordinates well,” Gaylord told podcast hosts Cristina White and Megan Fulara. “Everybody they work with, they should treat respectfully.”
- “Put mechanisms in place to deal with bullying, so…victims know what to do about it,” she said. “There should be a complaint and reporting procedure the same as harassment, and you need multiple channels to reporting bullying. The responses should include discipline, up to and including termination.”
- There should be a robust program in place to help employees who feel bullied. “Bullying can have an enormous psychological and emotional impact,” Gaylord said, and your team should include an EAP (Employee Assistance Program), and well-trained human resources officers. “You need good people who can help victims in the workplace deal with what’s happening to them,” she said.
Gaylord also discussed the ratio between male and female workplace bullies (about three to one), and the problems that arise because of remote work and electronic communications.
With more than 24 years of experience, Gaylord focuses her practice on traditional labor matters and employment litigation for both public and private sector employers, with an emphasis on National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) proceedings, union organizing drives, NLRB-conducted elections, arbitration cases, contract negotiations, and employment discrimination matters. She has experience counseling clients in government, higher education, not-for-profit, public safety, hospitality, and entertainment, among others.