Is hybrid working fuelling cyber bullying?

With most UK employees working in either hybrid or remote environments, we are naturally seeing fewer face-to-face interactions between colleagues. With this being said, when Bupa UK released their stats on hybrid workplace bullying, we were shocked.

The number of employees who have experienced workplace bullying has almost doubled since 2019, when the world plunged into remote working. Is this a coincidence, or has hybrid working caused cyberbullying to enter our workplace?  

Why has hybrid working increased workplace bullying? 

With 38% of UK employees working fully or part-time remotely, the opportunity for workplace bullying should be lower than what we’ve previously seen. Raised voices, judging or comments towards individuals’ appearance, harassment and playground style bullying should be harder to achieve in a hybrid working environment, but this simply isn’t the case.  

Hybrid working is producing new workplace challenges, such as:  

• If there is tension between colleagues, there is less opportunity to clear the air. When working remotely, colleagues can avoid each other, adding more fuel to any tension.  
• There is less opportunity for a manager to pick up on cues about an employee’s wellbeing.  
• With the primary form of communication being written, there is more chance of misinterpreted tone or message.  
• ‘Water cooler moments’ are replaced by ‘clique’ group chats within instant messaging apps. These form a sense of security for those involved to gossip freely.  
• Remote workers are reportedly feeling disengaged and isolated from the rest of the company due to being left out of in-person meetings and/or group chats. 

How can you identify if hybrid workplace bullying is taking place? 

If you are part of a company that works flexibly, there are steps you can take to identify whether bullying is taking place.  

1. Ask your employees. The key is to use third party employee surveys to ensure participant anonymity is ensured. This will build a psychologically safe environment where employees can speak up against workplace bullying.  
2. Within group chats or virtual meetings, keep an eye out for negative behaviours such as undermining, passive aggressive or intimidating comments and gestures, taking credit for another’s work, excluding colleagues, criticising, blaming and making unreasonable demands or deadlines.   
3. Create a psychologically safe environment where other employees can share if they’ve witnessed any hybrid workplace bullying, without being penalised for doing so.   
4. Use instant messaging platforms to your advantage. Create HR channels where employees can instantly chat to members of your HR team if they need to.  

What to put into place to prevent hybrid workplace bullying: 

 Either at a company or individual level, there are many ways to prevent hybrid workplace bullying:  

1. Start by reviewing and updating any company policies to include remote and hybrid working. 
2. Provide training to all employees to recognise any signs of bullying in the workplace, as well as sharing acceptable and unacceptable behaviours, and a refresher on your anti-bullying and harassment policies. 
3. Encourage managers to create psychologically safe environments within their teams, where employees feel confident to call out signs of bullying. 
4. Conduct exit interviews via a third-party employee experience survey provider. This will give the recipient the confidence to answer openly and honestly, unlike an in-person interview where they may feel embarrassed to do so.  
5. Ask managers and leaders to engage with employees whose performance may have dipped and investigate why this might be. Also encourage them to look out for any behavioural changes, particularly for remote colleagues, which may be a result of hybrid workplace bullying 

Next steps 

An anonymous employee survey gathers insights about how hybrid working has influenced behaviours and interactions at work, and can help you identify whether hybrid workplace bullying is taking place. Importantly, your employee survey results can also be broken down by demographic to understand whether any groups in particular are affected.  

Additional resources for a thriving hybrid workplace:  

• Improve the employee employer relationship in a hybrid workplace  
• Employee survey questions: How do people feel about hybrid working?  
• Employee Appreciation Ideas for your hybrid team  
• Quiet Quitting: Setting boundaries or a sign of disengagement?