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50% of Americans are bullied at work.
27% of them quit.
Greetings!
Stay tuned each month to learn about everything workplace bully; from tips for targets, to help for employers and HR professionals, to articles by other experts, and more!
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Can behavior-based interviews keep bullies out?
 Behavior-based (BB) interview questions are quite different than traditional interview questions. BB questions encourage interviewees to tell you stories, literally, about things that have happened in their past in order to gain an idea of how they might act in the future. BB interviews are probing, involve lots of follow up questions, and seek real results.
In contrast, traditional interview questions allow the respondent to provide very straight-forward (and easy to rehearse) answers.
Example:
Traditional Question: "How are you at working with irate customers?"
Behavior Based Question: "Tell me about a time you dealt with an irate customer. What was the situation, what did you do, what were the results, and what did you learn?" (And as the story unfolds, the interviewer would ask more questions about the details.)
A strong interviewer knows that each question should also have an accompanying measurement based on a scale of 1-5. Using the example above, the interviewer might decide an unsatisfactory answer (1) is one that does not indicate attempts to connect with the customer. An excellent answer (5), on the other hand, includes clear ability to empathize, ask questions, troubleshoot, take responsibility for resolution and follow through, and positive response from the customer.
So are BB interviews a tool you can use to avoid hiring bullies? While there is no guarantee that BB questions will totally eradicate alternate truths from interviewees on any subject, certainly probing questions would help you understand the candidates' past situation more fully and make it difficult for them to manufacture stories about their interpersonal skills.
Here are some examples of potential BB questions that could help you identify potential bullies. Remember to ask lots of probing questions while the story unfolds in order to fully understand the situation and weed out the bad apples; and don't forget to develop definitions of excellent, average and unacceptable answers for your measurement tool.
- Describe a time you did not get along with a fellow employee or manager. Why didn't you like that person, how did you handle it, and what did you learn about yourself?
- Describe a time you were in conflict with a fellow employee. What was the conflict about, how did you resolve it, and what did you learn about your conflict management style? (You could also ask this question about conflict in general, with someone outside of work.)
- Describe a time you believed a co-worker to be incompetent, either fully incompetent or surrounding a specific work task. What made you think the co-worker was incompetent? How did you handle the situation with the co-worker personally, how did you ensure the work was done correctly, what was the result?
- Describe a time you disagreed with an employee or manager.
 What was the issue? Why did you disagree? How did you resolve your differences, what was the outcome, and what did you learn about your own conflict management style?
- Tell me about a specific time you assigned work and it was not completed by the deadline given. In your opinion, why wasn't the work completed on time? What was the reason given by the employee? How did you work with the employee to help them through the problem? What was the outcome?
Special thanks to Maureen Orey, President, Workplace Learning and Performance Group, for sharing her knowledge with me. |
Tips for Targets : Building Self-Worth
Most of us connect our self-worth to our work because we spend so much time there. It's natural to want to do well and in turn, feel good about it. Unfortunately in a toxic workplace feeling good often seems like it's out of reach. So what can we do about it?
Sometimes life requires that we detach ourselves from a situation fully in order to protect ourselves and remain resilient. Bob Sutton, author of The No A**hole Rule, suggests focusing on caring as little as possible about the people around you, and think about pleasant things as often as you can.
In order to fight your degrading self-worth, try goal-setting. The thing about setting goals and achieving them is that it is a sure-fire way to feel good, no matter what else is happening around you. There is satisfaction to be had when you know exactly what you want and then you achieve it. So try writing down a list of obtainable goals, and then write out a plan to achieve at least one of them. As you complete each one, you will claim your dignity back.
Never forget that you are meant to receive good things and have a happy life. There is absolutely no reason you should be in this yucky situation, and you must believe you can get yourself out. It is only when you truly believe you DESERVE greatness will it follow. So focus on the good things you deserve and that you will achieve, and then take notice to your ability to stop caring about the silly bully at work. As long as you focus on the negative, the negative will continue to haunt you.
Remember that while you cannot change the bully's behavior, you certainly have control over your own well-being and the way you respond to any situation you find yourself in. |
Book Pick of the Month
Each month we recommend one book to help you overcome the workplace bully.
The No A**hole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One that Isn't By: Robert I. Sutton, PhD
Sutton offers a witty conversation about workplace bullies, creeps, tyrants, tormentors, backstabbers and egomaniacs. A quick moving read, the book provides advice for implementing and living the rule, and real tips for dealing with the jerk at work.
After writing a well-received article for the Harvard Business Review, Sutton's work has become widely popular... particularly because he definitely doesn't tip toe around the issue at all... | |
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In the News
Read my article in Positive Psychology News Daily
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International Association of Workplace Bullying & Harassment (IAWBH)
is finally active!
Join Special Interest Group (SIG) for Organizational Practitioners interested in discussing workplace bullying.
Network with internal and external practitioners in order to share pragmatic and real time best practices, general knowledge and resources. Connect, learn from each other's point of view, and work together to sooth workplace bullying. Click here to join.
IAWBH also offers a variety of other SIG's dependent upon your interests.
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CNN.com
When Co-Workers Kill "517 people were murdered at work in 2008... We are absolutely in a period right now of the highest periods of threats at work..."
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"Everything in your life is there as a vehicle for your transformation. Use it!"
- Ram Dass: Author and spiritual leader |
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Interested in our consulting services? |
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By addressing workplace bullying and developing techniques for sustainable change, you can increase employee retention and reduce turnover, reduce absenteeism and medical leaves, motivate, inspire and develop staff, minimize workplace politics, improve internal communication, provide customers with a positive experience, protect your company's reputation, increase the quality and quantity of work product, reduce workplace stress, and improve the health of employees and your organization.
In other words, when employees like their jobs, you have a self-sustaining system that reinforces performance and gives you the competitive advantage.
Find out how we can help. Click here to learn more about our services. |
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