Cyberbullying in the Workplace

According to Industrial Relations tribunal statistics in Australia, workplaces are experiencing increasing claims of bullying and cyberbullying, and the problems of cyber-bullying are only expected to increase over time.

Many businesses and companies would typically have current workplace policies for internet and email usage, harassment, racism, and discrimination, however, few would have a specific Bullying and Cyber-bullying policy in place.

Employers have a duty of care under the Workplace Health and Safety Act ‘take all reasonably practicable steps’ to provide a working environment that is healthy, safe and without risks to the health of employees, contractors or other persons in or near the workplace. Australian courts have demonstrated that an employer’s common law duty of care to employees encompasses not just their physical well being but extends to their psychological mental and emotional well being as well.

Cyber-Bullying is a relatively recent workplace issue, and is on the increase with the increased prevalence of take-home laptops and smart phones, making cyber-bullying a problem outside of the physical work environment and traditional working hours.

Cyber bullying is often defined as a form of covert bullying that is carried out through the use of technology. Examples of what constitutes cyberbullying include :

• Offensive, malicious or intimidating emails or SMS communications
• Email threats, malicious or threatening comments
• Posting blogs and comments on social networking sites
• Spreading lies, malicious gossip or falsely discrediting others on blogs or social networking sites, or via email to other employees
• Sharing a person’s private data online
• Sharing embarrassing, offensive or manipulated images or videos of an individual
• Screen savers or desktop backgrounds featuring offensive content.
• On Line Harassment & Cyberstalking: repeatedly sending offensive messages and/or the posting of racist, nasty and hurtful comments using electronic means;
• Identity theft
• Exclusion, deliberately excluding another from an online group, mailing list or electronic conversation.

The nature of the internet is that it is not possible to guarantee that any content published or transmitted can be erased, removed or corrected. Cyberbullying therefore has the potential to be more aggressive and escalate considerably faster than traditional methods of bullying because of the immediacy of the medium. It is important that employers recognise that addressing cyberbullying is essential for creating a safe and productive working environment.

Cyberbullying can seriously affect morale, cause undue fear and stress, emotional exhaustion and serious health and psychological issues with employees. This can result in productivity drops, absenteeism rises, staff turnover increases, morale slumps and difficulty retaining staff in an unhealthy work environment. Cyber-bullying is a serious matter for businesses because its effects on the psychological health of victims can be far reaching, lasting and more damaging that from the traditional physical bully.

Employers who recognise the significance of cyberbullying and take it seriously will be in a much better position to avoid the negative consequences and potential legal implications of incidents. Being proactive and introducing or amending workplace policies that are specific to Cyberbullying is highly recommended.  It is recognised that the best way to prevent cyberbullying is through policy, education and training of all levels of employees.  Your policy should cover or include areas such as:

• acceptable use of technology,
• how to deal with bullying in the workplace,
• give concrete examples of what constitutes cyberbullying,
• remind staff that anything posted on the internet is out of their control and is potentially there forever
• encourage staff to draft sensitive emails and re-read them a few hours later before sending them.
• Develop a reporting and investigation process for bullying and cyber-bullying- any reports of bullying made by employees - regardless of how incidental they may appear initially - must be investigated
• Set out the consequences for engaging in bullying or cyber-bullying behaviour.

To help minimize your risk as an employer, or to find out more about Cyberbullying, contact Annette at End2End Business Solutions on (02) 8977 4002 for advice on establishing workplace policies for your business.