Mention bullying in the workplace, and thoughts automatically turn to browbeating, domineering or malicious staff harassing their colleagues or subordinates. However, bullying in the workplace does not need to be aggressive or overt to cause real distress to employees and sticky legal situations for employers. It can be much more subtle than that.
The setting of unreasonable and unrealistic targets can also be construed as bullying or harassment, and employment law specialists are cautioning that unless companies wake up to the problem, they could find themselves in deep water.
It is not the intention of the perpetrator, but the deed itself and the impact this behaviour has on the recipient, which constitutes bullying or harassment. Therefore, the setting of unattainable targets can constitute bullying, and could result in an employee feeling pressurised enough to walk out of their job, later claiming constructive unfair dismissal.
Christine Pratt, CEO of the National Bullying Helpline (UK), agrees. “We hear of the problem of unreasonable target-setting all the time,” she says. “I spoke to someone only today who is alleging that the goalposts have been moved, targets not clearly defined and training not provided to help him meet his goals.”
Pratt reports that this subtle form of bullying is particularly severe in the public sector. “Funding and resourcing tend to be low and stress levels tend to be high – and because of the lack of money, training doesn’t take priority in the sector,” she says.
The setting of unreasonable targets isn’t always top-down. It can come from colleagues – particularly in a culture with an emphasis on team working. This is a worry when it comes to obvious forms of bullying, and even more so when it comes to more subtle forms that can be well disguised, especially in competitive or tough environments. A very fine line can exist between bullying and simply being part of the culture.
Thus, targets should be:
- Specific – Employees should fully understand what the organisation expects of them.
- Measurable – Employees need to be able to see when a task is achieved.
- Achievable – Employees need the right tools to achieve their targets.
- Realistic – If you ask a sales executive, for instance, to double their target from the previous month, having introduced no changes that would make this possible, it would be unrealistic.
- Flexible – If employees are unable to achieve one goal, it can have a domino effect on other targets, so there should be flexibility with time frames.
