You’ve just attended an eye opening seminar regarding the damaging effects of workplace bullying. The statistics shocked you. There was clear information regarding the effect on morale, productivity, and your business unit’s bottom line. During the event you could begin to feel a lump develop in your throat, as a supervisor of several employees in your department seemed to take shape in your mind as the perfect description of what an office bully looked like was laid out.

Over the past two years you have fielded several complaints from front line workers regarding the degrading way they were addressed by the supervisor, and how they often felt threatened by her words. She is an effective and hardworking supervisor who’s production numbers always seem to be on a satisfactory level when judged against her peers, but who’s staff turnover numbers nearly double the average. You’ve spoken to her on several occasions about addressing staff in a more positive way but have written some of the complaints off simply as “Jane being Jane”.

Lately, however, things have taken a turn for the worse. Two workers have reported her bullying behaviors to Human Resources after an incident where she berated them and threatened their jobs after they insisted on taking a scheduled break during an important project. These workers had no violations in their work files and are generally looked upon as unofficial leaders of the front line staffers. Upon complaining to HR they were told that unless there is a violation of law such as an incident of violence or legally tracked workplace harassment that there is no recourse and that they should ask for transfers if the behavior continued. The report to HR reflects poorly on you as a department head. You desperately want to avoid a negative workplace, and accept that you should have acted sooner. Armed with this new information you want to take a more proactive role in putting an end to losing your best front-line workers, but don’t want to end up losing a productive supervisor in the process, as they are extremely scarce in your industry.

You return from your seminar, call Jane, and ask her to come in to your office in 15 minutes.