Home topics workplace hr-and-staff Advice Employment Legislation Managing Advice Are there workplace monsters lurking in your business? Arndria Seymour June 14, 2012 At some stage in our careers we have all encountered a workplace monster, whether directly or indirectly. Workplace monsters are lurking in all of our organisations and we often don’t realise it until there is a problem. They are not always easy to spot as they come in all shapes and sizes. Their behaviour is not always clear in the beginning – as many a monster befriends their target(s), lures them into their web and then starts their attack when it is least expected. The monster I am referring to is the workplace bully. Workplace bullying can attack anyone, in any career, at any level, within any organisation and at any time. According to the Duncan and Riley study about one in six people are bullied at work; in some industries the figure is higher, ranging from 25 percent, 50 percent to 97 percent. In my opinion these statistics are alarming. I dug a little deeper and found statistics from Roberta Cava, author of ‘Dealing with Difficult People’ , and she suggested from 400,000 – two million workers are affected by harassment each year. The cost to the Australian economy is in the vicinity of $13 billion per annum in lost productivity, compensation and absenteeism.’ So what is workplace bullying? According to Stale Einarson and Paul McCarthy: “ all those repeated unreasonable and inappropriate actions and practices that