Companies should respond immediately because this type of behavior damages the psychological safety that’s so integral to a healthy company culture. In most cases, this type of behavior is also violating company values, whether implicitly or explicitly. Other employees observing this behavior will logically question if they want to remain associated with a firm that tolerates this type of behavior. At a time when companies are having such difficulty attracting and retaining employees, behavior like this can seriously negatively impact your brand as an employer.
The best approach is to have the witnesses to this behavior verbalize that it is unacceptable and/or makes them uncomfortable. The bully’s manager needs to address this privately but quickly to give the employee a warning and coach them on more appropriate ways to respond. Where this approach will not work is where the bully is a senior leader holding their position power over the employees they are bullying. In that case, it needs to be escalated to HR and addressed at higher levels of the organization.
In many cases, the bully has such low emotional intelligence that they’re not aware of the impact of their actions/words. Their social awareness may be minimal and they’re not reading the room and the reaction they’ve generated. I’ve worked with leaders who were appalled to learn they were perceived that way. The good news is that EQ can be learned – it’s not static like IQ. If the ‘bully’ really wants to change, there are many practical tools available to help them do so.
