Blogs

Stand up to bullying

It’s Not What You Think, Honest!

We’re not forming an army of disgruntled people, armed with pitchforks and torches! Stand Up To Bullying day, which is marked twice a year in February and November, emerged in 2007. That is how important this day is, it has 2 days of the year book-marked and stamped, for the last 17 years running. But why has this day become so successful? What does it do for people like us?

Decoding International Stand Up to Bullying Day

In 2007, two high school seniors, Travis Price and David Shepherd, initiated a movement against bullying in Cambridge, Nova Scotia. Their simple act sparked a global campaign.

Statistics Speak Louder Than Words

According to The Diana Award, 22% of young people aged 12-20 experienced bullying in the past year. Workplace bullying is also on the rise, with a 44% increase in tribunal claims between 2021-2022.

The Longterm Impact of Bullying

The impact is pervasive, affecting all areas of adult life, the effect of bullying on adversity in adulthood resulted in similar effects for those who were in care or facing multiple family adversities. Potentially affecting employment, mental health, and overall well-being.

Raising Awareness

It can be difficult to spot signs in the workplace, both bully and victim can be very good at hiding their respective roles. If they’re even aware they’re playing either of these roles!

“It was only a joke “or” it’s all about the banter” are common excuses. Whilst the victim might convince themselves they are being overly sensitive. Workplace bullying can appear in a variety of ways. Listed below are some of the signs within a workplace.

Berating a colleague
Taking credit for others’ work
Excluding others (ostracism)
Threatening others
Dictating unfair criticism

It’s important that when these problems occur, they are addressed as soon as possible. This type of behaviour should not be tolerated, and the workplace should be a constructive environment to enable team members to perform to their best ability.

A Personal Story

Were spoke to Andrew, one of our Operations Directors, about his personal experience of bullying.

Like so many other adults I had experiences throughout my childhood of being the subject of bullying and also seeing some of my school friends subjected to this too. It became one of the main drivers of choice of high schools for my son and thankfully the zero tolerance to bullying at his school enabled him to strive, succeed and be free to express himself without fear.

I am very proud that I now have a role within BM that I can ensure that the BM values of zero tolerance to bullying and harassment very strongly align with my own values too.

At BM we live our FOODIE values every day. Part of these values are obsessive about our people and we have many ways in which we ensure we maintain a culture that is friendly, inclusive and above all respectful.

This can be evidenced by our online training conflict management and equality and diversity training modules, celebrating anti-bullying week and regular team talks regarding these subjects and more.

This all helps promote a culture where bullying and harassment is not tolerated by BM in any form.

Of course, it would be naïve to think it never occurs amongst teams so we have our Employee Assistance Programme available to everyone as a free resource with a free-to-call phone line and also a website.

I can conclude that there are very few incidences and these are dealt with swiftly and fairly in BM to ensure everyone in our teams, at every level, can feel part of our #bmFamily💜💚