How to cope with workplace abuse

By Liz Lockhart

Employees who are coping with the stress of an abusive supervisor or boss tend to avoid direct communication in preference to confronting them. In a new study this strategy has been shown to be the least effective method of dealing with the situation whilst direct communication proves to be the best option.

The study from the University of Haifa is published in the International Journal of Stress Management.

Professor Dana Yagil who headed the study said ‘Abusive supervision is highly distressing for employees. Our study shows that the strategies being used by employees to cope with the stress caused by such behaviour do not lead to the most positive outcomes.’

You may like to see our guide to bullying in the workplace

Previous studies has looked at the effect of abuse supervision on the performance of employees, however the new study was initiated to determine the effect of using different coping strategies and the effects that this has on employee wellbeing.

The study was jointly conducted by Prof. Yagil, Prof. Hasida Ben-Zur and Inbal Tamir, of the University of Haifa’s Faculty of Social Welfare and Health Sciences. Five types of strategies for coping with the stress factor of abusive treatment were examined in the study, these include:

Directly communicating with the abusive boss to discuss the problems.
Using forms of ingratiation such as doing favours, using flattery and compliance.
Seeking support from others.
Avoiding contact with the supervisor.
Reframing which is described as mentally restructuring the abuse in a way that decreases its threat.

There were 300 employees who participated in the study. They were asked to rate how often they experienced abuse behaviour from a supervisor. The types of behaviour were things such as invasion of privacy, rudeness and lying.

The participants were also asked to rate the frequency of using any of 25 strategies all of which belong in the five categories above. For example:

‘I tell the supervisor directly that he/she must not treat me like that’ (direct communication category):
‘I support the supervisor in matters that are important to him/her, so that he/she will see I am on their side’ (ingratiation):
‘I try to have the least possible contact with the supervisor’ (avoidance of contact):
‘I relieve myself by talking to other people about the supervisor’s behaviour’ (support-seeking):
‘I remind myself that there are more important matters in my life’ (reframing).

Abusive treatment from a boss was most significantly associated with avoidance of contact, disengaging from the supervisor as much as possible and also to seeking support from others. The strategy of direct communication was least strongly associated with dealing with an abusive supervisor.

The effect on the employees who used the avoidance strategy was a feeling of negative emotions whilst those who communicated with their supervisor (which is less common) resulted in a feeling of positive emotions.

Dr. Yagil says ‘It is understandable that employees wish to reduce their contact to a minimum. However, this strategy further increases the employee’s stress because it is associated with a sense of weakness and perpetuates their fear of the supervisor’.

The study further suggests that bosses should look out for signs of employee detachment as it may indicate that their own behaviour is being considered offensive by those employees.

See our guide to bullying in the workplace for useful information and resources on this subject.