Bullying: psychological aggression at work

Professional life, with the work routine and career building, is a challenge to be faced daily. However, in addition to everyday activities, occasional problems and stress, coexistence at work becomes even more complex in situations of moral harassment.

“Moral harassment is when there is intentional and continuous exposure of employees to embarrassing or humiliating situations in the work environment. It is, in fact, psychological violence that leads workers to become emotionally destabilized, sometimes even leading them to resign”, explains behavioral psychologist Letícia de Oliveira.

Unfortunately, bullying is common and can happen to anyone. “There is no specific profile that predisposes a person to be a victim of moral harassment. However, the most frequent victims are women, homosexuals, people with disabilities, the elderly”, points out Marcelle Santana Machado, labor lawyer at Cavalcante Ramos Advogados.

Although the aggressor is, in most cases, someone in a superior position to the victim – bosses, supervisors, supervisors -, it is also possible that moral harassment is practiced by colleagues who perform the same function as the person attacked.

The reasons that lead someone to harass a person at work are not always clear or rational. It could be a colleague trying to harm you to gain more prominence, it could be an attempt by a superior to demonstrate authority, it could be a way for the employer to create an unsustainable environment for the worker to resign and he does not have to bear the labor costs of a termination.

Regardless of the cause, bullying is never acceptable or justified and must be reported.

What is bullying? 11 situations that fit

It is not always easy to distinguish a situation from moral harassment. Victims often interpret harassment as “normal” in the work environment, especially if the aggression comes from a superior. Therefore, it is important to remember that bullying is not characterized by occasional tensions at work (such as stress, constructive criticism, eventual demands), but by systematic or recurrent attitudes.

“Moral harassment is any and all behavior that exposes the worker to humiliating and abusive situations, where the victim is isolated from the group without explanations, prevented from expressing himself without justification, harassed, frightened, ridiculed, inferiorized, blamed, in a repetitive way during the working day and in the exercise of their functions”, points out Marcelle.

Moral harassment can be identified in situations such as:

1. Requirement of tasks that do not match the function of the worker;
2. Deadlines for completing activities that are impossible to achieve;
3. Hide essential information for the performance of a job;
4. Deliberately ignoring the person (not greeting, not responding, segregating, etc.);
5. Criticizing or scolding publicly, exposing the person;
6. Control the time of going to the bathroom;
7. Criticizing the work excessively or unfairly;
8. Disregard medical recommendations;
9. Threats of any kind;
10. Ridicule, jokes, nicknames;
11. Exposure of the employee’s private life.

It is worth emphasizing that, regardless of the position occupied by the aggressor – if he has some degree of kinship with the owners of the company, if he is the owner himself, if he is your direct boss, if he occupies a hierarchically similar position to yours – moral harassment never is justified: no one can subject another person to this type of violence.

how to proceed

Moral harassment leaves deep marks on the victim. This type of psychological violence can affect a person’s emotional health, in addition to harming their professional life and work performance. Therefore, knowing how to proceed in such situations is essential to take action and seek solutions.

in personal life

As with any type of trauma, overcoming a bullying case is not simple. Everyone has their own way of dealing with problems, which makes the harmfulness of aggression take on different dimensions for different people.

“The person who goes through harassment often ends up with psychological problems, such as bouts of anxiety, stress and depression. Furthermore, these employees often end up losing reference to their values ​​and qualities, and they can convince themselves that they are what their harassing colleagues were talking about”, says Letícia.

Counting on the support of friends and family, seeking activities and hobbies that help restore confidence, working on self-esteem and seeking professional help are ways to start the process of overcoming.

“Sources of fulfillment and importance will help the victim redefine their qualities and balance their emotional state. Seek therapy as soon as possible, so you will be able to understand the best paths to follow to balance your life again”, advises the psychologist.

in the professional aspect

Resolving the situation at work can be the most challenging part: since often the aggressor is also the victim’s superior, the person experiencing the harassment does not know who to turn to. In addition, the idea of ​​communicating aggression can be associated with the fear of making the situation worse, of receiving punishment and even being fired.

Even so, the complaint is an important step and must be made so that the responsible departments of the company look for a way to solve the problem. If the aggression is carried out by colleagues, the victim can report the case to a superior or direct boss. When the aggressor is the superior himself, the complaint can be made in other offices.

“The victim must report the moral harassment to the human resources or personnel department of the company, to expose the facts, as well as to the CIPA (Internal Commission for Accident Prevention) and to the SESMT (Specialized Service for Safety and Occupational Medicine) of the company, if any, and also communicate to the professional union of your category, which normally has a legal, medical and social service body. If it is not successful, the victim must report the moral harassment to the Ministry of Labor and Employment and the Public Ministry of Labor”, guides Marcelle.

in a legal way

In addition to the internal complaint, the victim can choose to take the situation to a legal scope, even though there is no specific legislation on moral harassment.

“Since it is unsustainable to maintain the job, the victim must seek a lawyer in order to file a labor claim aiming at the indirect termination of the employment contract, upon presentation of evidence in the process, for conduct practiced by the employer provided for in article 483 of the CLT, since there is no specific regulation about moral harassment”, explains Marcelle.

Compiling evidence of the situation may not be easy. Colleagues who know what is going on or have witnessed an assault can serve as witnesses, and written records of messages can also be helpful.

“The employee must gather all supporting documentation to demonstrate the moral harassment suffered. It can often be demonstrated through offenses carried out in corporate emails. The employee can confide in the closest co-workers for the purpose of knowing the facts to serve as possible witnesses”, indicates Clênio Denardini Pereira, a lawyer specializing in labor law.

With the evidence accepted by the judge, termination without just cause will be decreed for serious misconduct by the employer, in addition to the requirement for payment of moral damages.

“Such termination is considered a serious fault on the part of the employer and, consequently, the employer must bear the costs of contractual termination in the same way as the employee’s dismissal without just cause. That is, you must pay indemnified notice, thirteenth proportional salary, vacation, overdue and proportional, fine of 40% of the FGTS, salary balance, issuance of unemployment insurance and FGTS guides, etc.”, clarifies Clênio.

Depositions

Testimonials from those who have already suffered moral harassment show even more the seriousness and harmfulness of this type of aggression, harming professional life, emotional health and physical health. Check out the testimony of one of the interviewees:

“I worked at a place where the boss made life for employees who were getting ‘expensive’ for the company into hell. As the company had a career plan, as the person went up in that plan, her life became more difficult. I only took bad jobs that paid less hours and everything only got worse until the person decided to resign. I believe this was a form of harassment, as the intention was to make the person resign so the company would not have to bear the burden of firing them or pay what the person should have received at that point in their career path.”

Moral harassment doesn’t just happen in private companies: in public institutions and in academia it is also possible to find cases of people who have gone through it. That’s what happened to L., a victim of moral harassment during her master’s degree.

“My advisor made me and his other students go through extremely embarrassing situations, followed by different types of demands. He always held group meetings and harshly criticized each student in front of everyone else. We were often humiliated for not knowing something. We couldn’t think differently from him, for we were automatically wrong. During this period, I developed gastritis and my blood pressure, which had always been normal, started to get a little higher. During the defense of my dissertation, at the end of the course, he humiliated me in front of all my family and friends present, pointing out even the smallest errors of the work (such as typos) to attribute to my ‘incompetence’. Today, I try not to remember details of everything that happened. I can say that I got over it, and that the best thing about me was learning not to reproduce this type of behavior.”

In the following documentary, produced by the Public Ministry of Labor of Rio Grande do Sul, you can find some more testimonies from people who suffered from moral harassment.

Dealing with psychological and emotional marks can be a great challenge for anyone who has gone through it. However, it is possible to overcome trauma: the support of friends and family, seeking therapy and activities that help to regain confidence and work on self-esteem are great ways to overcome it.

It is important to reinforce that moral harassment is never justified, regardless of who commits the aggression – direct bosses, company owners, colleagues in the same role. Reporting the aggressor to the competent authorities is an important step for the victim to guarantee their rights.