Types of bullying and how to deal with them

Sad but true - according to the results of a study carried out in the UK [1], almost one in four employees (23 percent) have been bullied at work, and 25 percent have felt left out at work. How is bullying defined? What types of bullying are there and how do you deal with it if you are being bullied yourself?

What is bullying?

Bullying has many faces, which is why there is no standard definition for the term. Bullying is basically understood to be a certain type of conflict-causing that is predominantly directed towards one person. Bullying often involves individual perpetrators, but groups of people such as colleagues or classmates can also become perpetrators. Bullying usually takes place regularly and over a long period of time. Bullying can take place wherever people meet - but is particularly common at school, at work or on the internet. In bullying, the victim is subjected to predominantly psychological, but also physical abuse. There are many types of bullying.

Typical acts of bullying can be understood to be, e.g., if (someone)

• is treated with a lack of respect in front of others.
• is regularly made fun of in front of others.
• is not accepted in a group (social exclusion).
• has important information withheld from them.
• is treated like they are not there.
• is bad-mouthed behind their back.
• rumours are spread about a person. (slander/libel).
• is targeted, e.g. by assigning them meaningless tasks, abuses of power, incorrect performance evaluation.
• is subjected to constant, unreasonable criticism of his or her person or actions (such as his or her job skills).
• someone is threatened with violence, or physical violence is even carried out.
• is sexually harassed.

Good to know: Although there is no legal definition of the term bullying, harassment relating to one of the protected characteristics constitutes unlawful discrimination under the terms of the Equality Act 2010. Sometimes bullying can be classed as harassment, if it's related to certain 'protected characteristics' under discrimination law.

Where does bullying start?

Is it bullying - or are you just being a wuss? Perpetrators like to downplay their behaviour and trivialise their actions towards their victims. The victim feels ashamed and keeps quiet, and so do the other silent observers. After all, it's not that bad! However, if you feel like a victim of the bullying behaviours listed above, and you are regularly attacked, socially excluded and put down, directly or indirectly, over a long period of time, then bullying is clearly at play.

These are the different types of bullying

Bullying can be encountered in different ways and in different places. Because of this, different types of bullying are considered to be separate and can be categorised as follows:

• Physical bullying
• Verbal and non-verbal bullying
• Cyberbullying
• Sexual bullying
• Social bullying

Much of this is self-explanatory so far. Let's take a closer look at the different types of bullying in depth.

1. What is physical bullying?

Picking on those perceived to be weaker and physically attacking them is one type of bullying. Most of the time, physical bullying starts off quite harmlessly. It starts with bumping or tripping someone up, almost as if by accident. This is what perpetrators do to test how far they can go with the victim. Pushing is often not too far away from kicking and hitting.

Physical bullying often develops in a group in which violent people get together and take out their perceived physical superiority on those they consider inferior. Sometimes, however, there is only one person in the group who acts as the perpetrator and who is cheered on by the others.

Perpetrators demonstrate their perceived dominance by physical bullying. Often, this form of bullying is also an outlet to let out pent-up frustration on a person who is perceived to be weaker. In addition to the physical pain, the victim is also emotionally humiliated. The long-term consequences of physical bullying should therefore not be underestimated in any way.

Good to know: Physical bullying also includes damage to property.

2. What is verbal bullying?

Verbal bullying involves using words instead of violence to attack the victim This might be about things like

• Nationality: "Immigrants should go home!"
• Clothing: "Can't you afford decent clothes?"
• Or appearance: "Wow, you're ugly!

Verbal bullying marginalises, insults, threatens and intimidates its victims. Regardless of whether the statements are justified or just cruel - the point of verbal bullying is to use words to bring the victim to their knees. Even though verbal bullying doesn't cause visible injuries, the emotional pain often runs deep.

3. What is social bullying?

Social bullying describes the exclusion and rejection of a person within a group - whether at school, college or work. Imagine feeling like everyone is against you, you are treated with disrespect and no longer fit in. The conversation falls silent when you enter the room, you are not invited to private parties and the seat next to you at lunch time is always left empty. Social bullying is often hard to cope with because being rejected and not belonging is one of our greatest fears.

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4. What is cyberbullying?

In most types of bullying, the perpetrator is known. Cyberbullying is often different. In this case, bullying can take place using the anonymity of the internet - both publicly on social media for everyone to see and non-publicly via private messages by text message, email or messenger. In addition, messenger or social media groups are used to specifically exclude the victim and to really rant about the person who isn't present, to like comments and to spread them further. If the hate takes place publicly on the internet, then messages, photos or videos are visibly shared in public chats or on social network profiles. Thanks to social media, perpetrators have a platform on which they can bully day and night.

The many faces of cyberbullying

Online bullying can take many different forms. The following types of cyberbullying exist:

5. What is sexual bullying?

Sexual bullying can be both verbal and physical. I.e. with suggestive comments that target the victim's sexual attraction, or even their sexual orientation, as well as touching against the victim's wishes. On social media, sexual bullying can also take place via text messages or the sending of pornographic pictures and videos. Sexual bullying is also known as sexualised violence. It occurs without consent and is a serious invasion of the victim's privacy and dignity.

What to do about bullying?

Bullying makes people ill and causes medical stress. The consequences of stress are not least depression, burn-out and much more. It is not uncommon for victims of bullying to lose their jobs and suffer the consequences of bullying for a very long time. If you think you might be being bullied, you should definitely seek help. You could talk to someone you trust or a senior colleague at work, and you might also find it empowering to work on your communication skills at work and practise adapting your body language and mindfulness so that you appear self-confident.

The internet also has important sites that offer professional help and suggest ideas to escape the role of a bullied victim.

Anti-Bullying Alliance offering advice for children, young people and parents in the UK

Department of Education - leaflets for parents and carers

BeatBullying - international bullying prevention charity

Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service for employees

[1] Source: https://www.smeloans.co.uk/blog/bullying-in-the-workplace-statistics-uk/