Breaking the Cycle

Dato’ Dr Andrew Mohanraj talks about bullying in the workplace, which has led to many people suffering from mental health issues, and shares his ideas on how we can both avoid and manage the problem

- ANEETA SUNDARARAJ

A newly qualified lawyer, Sara is excited and eager to work at a city firm she’s joined. Weeks later, she senses a pattern in the behaviour of some of the clerks. Whenever she hands them a document to amend, they will share it among themselves and start talking in their mother tongue. She knows she’s being excluded and asks them to speak in English so she can participate in the conversation. They brush her offand, with a smile, say that they’re more comfortable speaking in their mother tongue.

One day, Sara secretly records what they’ve said and plays it back to a friend who knows this language. She’s horrified to know that not only have the clerks given her a vulgar nickname, they mercilessly mock her work. In time, Sara leaves the firm bitter and angry.

This, shares Dato’ Dr Andrew Mohanraj, is a form of bullying in the workplace. Bullying on its own, says the psychiatrist, happens because a person envies another for what he or she has. By becoming a bully, that person hides their insecurities. At this day and age, such bullying can also be magnified by the use of technology, and this persists to the point where there is seldom any respite for the person being bullied. When the setting for all this bullying happens in the workplace, the ramifications can be devastating and even prolonged.