There is never a good reason for bullying and sexual harassment to exist in the workplace. Due to fear of repercussions towards the victims, these cases are rarely reported with only 1 in 4 cases estimated to be reported. Shockingly, the perpetrators of these negative behaviours often don’t realise they are at fault and the bystander effect means that their behaviour never gets challenged. Additionally, minorities in the workplace tend to be disproportionately affected by this. The first step to creating a psychologically safe workplace for everyone is to understand why and how these negative interpersonal behaviours at work occur and foster new understandings of how to deal with bullying in the workplace.

Ivana’s biography:

Ivana Vranjes is an Assistant professor in Work and Organisational Psychology at Tilburg University in the Netherlands. She obtained her PhD in workplace cyberbullying in Belgium for which she collaborated with several private and public companies to collect data and develop an understanding of why people misbehave online. With further research projects completed in Canada and Finland on inappropriate workplace behaviors, such as aggression, bullying and sexual harassment. Her current focus is looking at how people who engage in mistreatment at work reflect on their own behaviour, in order to break the negative spirals of mistreatment at work. She also brings to the table valuable insights on how technology is shaping the way we work, and the impact it has on the way we are communicating with each other.

In this episode, we dive deep into answering the following thorny questions:

0:00 - Intro
2:50 - How did Ivana get first become interested in the topic of cyber bullying?
4:00 - How does technology affect people's wellbeing and way of work?
5:20 - How flexibility allows for the best balance of hybrid work.
7:30 - How does cyberbullying at work manifest?
10:00 - What is the psychology behind the perpetrators of bullying at work?
12:40 - What is the impact on people who have been bullied?
14:35 - What are the signs that someone is being bullied?
17:10 - How do people successfully stop bullying from happening?
21:53 - What is 'The Bystander Effect' and how does it perpetuate bullying?
24:17 - Is Bystander Training to stop bullying the same as Conflict Management Training?
28:00 - What are the work environments where bullying is more likely to occur?
29:45 - What are preventative measures the organisation can take to prevent bullying at work?
31:10 - How annual performance reviews can be used to monitor bullying.
33:50 - In what circumstances does sexual harassment usually occur?
36:50 - What are the mechanisms in place that allow the victim to stand up against the bully, when the bully is in a more powerful position?
42:22 - How does the Johnny Depp vs. Amber Heard trial make people think that most sexual harassment claims are false?
47:30 - How can we confront men's fear of supporting women at work and the fear of untrue harassment claims?
52:50 - How people can navigate the shifting lines of what behaviour is considered discrimination? 56:00 - What are successful strategies to reduce harassment or bullying at work?
57:50 - What is Ivana's one wellbeing practice?

Learn more about Ivana:
https://www.linkedin.com/in/ivana-vranjes-4554506b/

Learn more about Clearhead:
https://www.myclearhead.com/