Bullying is the use of force or coercion to abuse or intimidate others.
They are always there, they annoy us and make us uncomfortable, but they are part of the office folklore, bullying a fashionable term not only happens in schools, it also happens in the workplace where it can take more subtle forms although with the same results fatal.
A hostile environment, is the phrase Karla used when I asked her what the environment of the marketing department she had recently joined was like, her promotion has been part of an internal promotion process and she started in the messaging area but thanks to Her commitment and academic achievements gradually progressed first to sales, assistant to the commercial director and now to be one of the company's marketing executives.
The hostility to which Karla referred has to do with enduring throughout her ascent the constant ridicule of her fellow messengers who predicted her early failure as a saleswoman, her shyness prevented her from responding to the attacks, however she always found in it a push to demonstrate that he could be very solvent in the new commercial order. Already in the sales area, the supervisor always showed a certain apathy to the new saleswoman, the pressure exerted in the fund was intended to make her give up and return to her old job.
The truth is that his sales results were similar to those of his colleagues, however the indirect phrases about his humble origin, indifference towards achievements, the breakdown of social activities of the group, the bad taste jokes of his colleagues, we She said that they made up jokes where she was the protagonist represented by ridiculous characters, she really felt a lot of pain but she had to smile and hide. His time as assistant to the commercial director came with an unfortunate meeting in which his new boss told him that he had been forced to accept his appointment which he had opposed, it lasted just two months in which he looked for all possible ways to change of position.
Finalmente sus esfuerzos rindieron frutos cuando terminó la carrera de publicista que estudiaba en la noche después del trabajo. llego el ascenso, un momentáneo espacio de felicidad por el logro pero luego vino la realidad, las cosas al inicio iban bien, sus compañeros del staff de marketing le integraban al grupo, sin embargo pronto empezaron nuevamente las burlas, el acoso emocional, el desprecio a sus ideas, la reacción de Karla, nuevamente bajar la cabeza y soportar esta pesada carga gracias al miedo de perder lo que había ganado hasta hoy; todos estos hechos, por cierto caricaturizados por los melodramas culebreros en las telenovelas, parecen haber convertido el bullying empresarial en un hecho inocente pero las implicaciones pueden ser fatales.
There are no data yet for Latin America but in the United States 35% of the workforce has reported being a victim of bullying in their workplace, the evidence of being a victim in their workplace takes forms ranging from physical intimidation and verbal, emotional blackmail, any type of job threat, forced exclusion from social events, humiliation in public, etc.; the problem many times is that we do not realize that this type of behavior is not normal as we have assimilated it, all these events, often caricatured in the gossip of the corporate corridors, seem to have turned corporate bullying into an innocent fact, but the implications can be fatal.
We received a call from the human talent department of the company where Karla works to ask us for coaching sessions because they have seen that their productivity and state of mind decreased significantly, the coach in charge of the process immediately detected that it was not a learning event but a process of deep depression as a result of what happened and immediately referred to the psychologist of the company who took over the treatment, shortly after Karla resigned in search of other opportunities and was never heard from again in this company, surely as in a horror movie this organization will be waiting for the next Karla to fulfill her role as victimizers.
