Most of us tread a very fine line between coping with our workload and being over capacity. What happens when your manager isn’t a source of support, but the cause of the problem?
- Do they make excessive demands on your time: such as calling you early in the morning, sending you late-night messages, setting weekend deadlines, and generally tramping over your boundaries?
- Do you suspect that your workload is some sort of weird resilience test? Or that it is inconsistent compared to your peers?
- Have some of your role responsibilities been removed for no logical reason, giving you tasks below your pay-grade? Or your direct reports taken away from you?
- Is your performance being supervised to an unnecessary level, making you feel less confident?
- Is your schedule regularly changed at the last minute, so you don’t feel in control of your time?
- Is your work rejected, even if it has been carried out to a reasonable standard, with no clear explanation given about how to improve it?
- Do you feel set up to fail?
PLAN A
Perhaps your manager is just poorly trained and doesn’t realise the impact of their behaviour on others. That’s not uncommon!
Talk to them about it. Keep it rational and solution focused, never personal. Put yourself in the mindset of a high performer in your role, not a victim, and approach the conversation that way. Jointly create a plan. Agree how you can make a more valuable contribution, which activities you should prioritise, and better ways to communicate. Work on your boundaries so you can state your needs more assertively in future.
PLAN B
Do you feel nervous of raising your concerns because of unpleasant repercussions? Or fear you will be criticised or belittled? If you believe you can’t resolve matters informally that indicates a more insidious situation. Excessive and unreasonable demands are a popular weapon for workplace bullies.
You might already be experiencing some physical effects, such as stomach aches, backpains, headaches, exhaustion, even panic attacks. As the saying goes, the body keeps the score.
If you feel that you are being bullied at work, you probably are.
Bullying is any type of abusive behaviour in the workplace. There is no legal definition of bullying but behaviour or abuses of power that undermine others, or cause them to suffer work related stress, are considered bullying.
Accusing someone of bullying is a serious thing and can be a form of bullying in itself. It should only be done carefully and with evidence. Keep a record of every event in which you feel bullied, as well as any emails or messages. This will help you to recall the events, and show whether they are isolated, unintentional, or a more serious campaign against you.
Every employer has a policy on how bullying should be handled and a legal duty of care to protect you while you are at work. Follow the procedures in the policy and take legal advice if you need to.
You are not alone in what you are experiencing. A report from the UK’s Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that 15% of employees reported having experienced bullying or harassment in the last three years.
I’d love to know your experiences of these situations, in confidence obviously. Feel free to share this article to anyone who might find it helpful.