The Bully-Free Workplace

In many organizations some employees behave in ways that are extremely damaging to their co-workers. These bullies wreak havoc in organizations. Their damaging behavior leads to emotional, physical, and financial challenges for the employees they target. For organizations, these problems often lead to losing productive employees and can result in lawsuits. In extreme cases, bullying can lead to homicide or suicide. In The Bully-Free Workplace, authors Gary Namie and Ruth F. Namie inform executives that the best solution to eradicate bullies from the workforce is to implement a formal policy, such as the Namie Blueprint process—a process that defines standards of appropriate behavior and holds people accountable for that conduct. When organizations draw a line in the sand clearly illustrating what behavior is unacceptable they can put an end to bullying.