Why Bad Managers Raise the Risk of Office Bullying
People who work in offices can suffer from bullying behavior by their managers. The same person who is supposed to support and develop staff members can instead undermine, ignore, criticize, and humiliate them.
If you are a manager in an office, keep reading to know why a bad manager can lead to office bullying. You might not mean to be a bad manager but there are many ways that this happens without our realizing it.
We all have good days and bad days as managers but these habits can become ingrained if we’re not careful. Read on for 5 things that make you a bad manager—and how to stop being one.
You Don’t Know What Makes Your Employees Happy
Managers who are bad at their jobs tend to ignore the factors that make their employees happy. They don’t ask what their employees’ needs and desires are and they don’t try to meet them. You might be distracted by your own goals and desires (I want to meet sales targets! I want to increase profitability!) but these don’t necessarily dovetail with your employees’ needs (I want to feel valued! I want to have time to be with my family!).
If you want people to be happy in their jobs, the first step is to find out what they need and want. You don’t know if your employees are happy and you don’t know what they need from you. That’s a bad place to start.
You Don’t Care About Your Employees’ Growth
You might care about everything else about your employees’ happiness but you don’t care about their growth. If you don’t care about your employees’ growth and development, you’re a bad manager who is likely to lead to office bullying.
But why does it matter, exactly? It’s been proven that people who grow in their jobs are happier, more productive, and less likely to leave the company. But you also see people change as they grow.
As you help people develop, they learn to be better at their jobs and they learn new skills and ways of thinking that might not have happened otherwise. When you care about employees’ growth and development, you’re helping them become better people.
Your Communication Is Poor
Many managers are poor communicators who are likely to lead to office bullying. Communication isn’t just talking—it’s all of the ways that you interact with your employees to convey information and support.
Managers who don’t respect their employees’ time and attention are almost guaranteed to be bad managers who lead to office bullying.
Bad managers might not realize that communicating poorly is a sign of disrespect. If you’re bad at communicating, you’re probably too busy to notice. You’ll be off doing your own thing, communicating in your own way.
You Don’t Solve Problems for Your Staffers
If you see a problem and you do nothing, you’re a bad manager.
Managers who are bad at their jobs often don’t solve problems for their staff members. You might not notice that one of your employees is overloaded because you’re too busy with your own stuff. Or you might be the type of person who likes to solve problems on your own, no matter how big or small.
If you have a problem with an employee, you’re probably going to solve it. But what about when one of your employees has a problem? Do you step in and solve it for them? Of course not—managers solve problems for themselves, not their employees.
You Don’t Value Diversity & Inclusion
If you don’t value diversity and inclusion, you’re a bad manager who is likely to lead to office bullying.
Bad managers don’t care about their employees’ differences or help them integrate with the rest of the team. They don’t want to see themselves as bad managers but they don’t notice the impact of not caring about diversity and inclusion. Bad managers don’t want to see themselves as bad managers. They don’t want to see the ways that they lead to office bullying. They don’t want to change. They’re comfortable with their actions and the way that they treat people. And why would they change? They’re getting what they want.
Conclusion
Bad managers can lead to a toxic work culture with office bullying. If you are a manager, you can prevent this by recognizing why bad managers do this. You can do this by being aware of your own actions and making changes as needed.
Talk to us about your Melbourne Workplace Bullying Investigation
https://www.safeworkaustralia.gov.au/system/files/documents/1702/guide-preventing-responding-workplace-bullying.pdf
