One day you find yourself sitting on your lunch break when you overhear a co-worker being mean toward another co-worker. This makes you feel very uncomfortable. What should you do? Ignore the behaviour, call out the behaviour or report it to your supervisor.
At Bethany, we strive to make our workplace a safe and healthy place for all. A place where everyone treats each other with respect, dignity, and free of discrimination. We each have a responsibility to address behaviours that demean and disrespect others. Standing up to these behaviours by being a “Supportive Bystander” is the first step in stopping these behaviours in the workplace. Ignoring them only perpetuates them.
What does it mean to be a bystander? If we witness behaviours and/or overhear interactions that are disrespectful, harassing, discriminating, or violent, we have a role to play in addressing and preventing these actions in the future. Addressing people’s actions and words is uncomfortable, but it is important to be part of creating respectful and safe workplaces one conversation, and one interaction at a time.
How to provide support as a bystander – Keeping your safety in mind:
- In the moment – Speak up and move closer to the person being treated disrespectfully.
- After the event, check-in with the: Recipient of the behaviour and make sure they are ok. Ask them how you can support them.
- If appropriate, encourage those involved to talk to each other.
- If the above doesn’t work or the situation escalates, talk to your supervisor or manager.
Things you can say to address disrespectful behaviour
- Seek to understand by asking
- “What did you mean by that?”
- “I heard this… is that what you meant to say?”
- “That didn’t feel very respectful to me. Help me understand what is going on.”
- Address the behaviour
- “How can we talk about this more respectfully?”
- Support a pause in the conversation – “It sounds like this is important. Can we take a little time and reflect on this and talk about it at our next meeting/later?”
- “This doesn’t feel productive to the conversation. Let’s focus on the topic at hand.”
- “That’s inappropriate, please stop saying/doing that.”
- “I don’t think you meant it to be, but that sounded disrespectful. This needs to stop.”
It may feel awkward to say these kinds of things in the moment, but we need to act. When we don’t speak up, we are accepting the behaviour and unintentionally may cause harm. If you are being bullied, harassed, and/or being treated with disrespect report it to your supervisor or Human Resources.For more information, please contact:
Lesley MacKinnon
Manager, Safety
Lesley.Mackinnon@BethanySeniors.com
Or
Site OHS Committee Chair or Representative
ADDITIONAL LINKS AND RESOURCES
Policy Psychological Health and Safety
Respect in the Workplace PT Campaign
Bethany Code of ConductNEW LINK – https://lifeworks.com/en
LifeWorks supports employee health and well-being.
Bethany employees have access to a wide range of resources such as:
- LifeWorks Blog
- Webinars and Events
- 24/7 Specialist Counselling
Bethanycaresociety.lifeworks.com
username: bcs
Password: eap
Phone: 1-877-207-8833
Phone App: LifeWorks WorkAngel
Leave a Reply