In our Online Sexual Harassment Prevention training your employees will learn and apply the important skills of handling sexual harassment issues and complaints. This hands on workshop thoroughly addresses the elements of how to prevent unacceptable behavior. The class includes a detailed overview of what sexual harassment is, explains legal definitions, discusses sexual harassment prevention, and shows how to handle sexual harassment complaints and maintain a positive work environment.
For more information about individual sexual harassment training courses
Jan Werff knew the boss was trouble.
"She had a thing about forcing people to do what she wanted, whether it was work-related or not," he says. "She liked to touch you and back you into a corner."
Once the woman grabbed an employee by the shirt "and gave her a shake," Werff says. Another time, she grabbed a different employee by the neck "and throttled her."
And he wasn't exempt. "She'd get right in my face and say, 'How does it feel for a big man like you to be bossed by a little lady like me?' " he says.
Just like their counterparts on the playground, workplace bullies don't have to resort to physical violence to flex their aggression muscles: Tactics include spreading rumors about their targets, "freezing" them out of meetings and initiatives or isolating the victim socially or physically.
Supervisors can use the evaluation process to target their victims, deny them plum assignments or set standards that are impossible for the victim to meet. Peers can sabotage projects or encourage others to turn against the target.
Werff, 49, of Latonia, Ky., has filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission against his former boss and their employer, which he says failed to respond to his and co-workers' complaints. Now on administrative leave, he's set up his own business.
Dean McFarlin, a professor of global leadership development at the University of Dayton and co-author of "House of Mirrors: The Untold Truth About Narcissistic Leaders and How to Survive Them" (Kogan Page; $24.95), estimates about 10 percent of managers think they can get away with bullying their subordinates.
"That means for most of us, since we're going to have a dozen bosses over the course of our lives, the odds are you're going to run into one of these people who is narcissistic to the extent that they're at least a little abusive," he says.
While researching his book, McFarlin collected horror stories from workers who'd been bullied by their bosses. One man's boss pulled a gun on him and threatened to kill him. It wasn't until the second time it happened that the man realized the gun was fake, McFarlin says.
Estimates differ on how widespread workplace bullying is and who the perpetrators are.
A July study from the National Institute on Occupational Safety and Health shows that nearly a quarter of workplaces surveyed reported some degree of bullying had been reported in the previous year.
The study also found that 39 percent of the most recent bullying incidents reported were worker-to-worker, while 24.5 percent involved a customer as the aggressor. A supervisor was the aggressor in 14.7 percent of the incidents.
The good news is that more employers are paying attention to it and trying to resolve the issue, experts say.
The key, says Cincinnati therapist Judie Garvin, is to establish policies that define bullying and harassment and spell out clear procedures on dealing with incidents. Training new employees on behaviors that will and won't be tolerated can go a long way toward preventing bullying, Garvin says.