Employer’s Guide to Track Down Cyber-Bullies in the Workstation

employer's guide to track down

As an entrepreneur, you are obligated for too many activities and undertakings in unison. Your duties run the gamut from arranging finance and hiring staff to managing and directing daily operations. That’s not all. Providing a safe, productive and conflict-free environment to your workers is among your prime responsibilities because any malevolent activity can potentially affect the well being of the workers and ultimately the company’s overall performance.

A workplace brings together people from different walks of life but expecting the people of distinguished roles and personalities to work well together without any clash is not quite possible. The differences in views, communication styles and behaviors can lead to potential workplace issues and can ultimately lead to stress and depression. Though all the workers deserve to be treated indiscriminately and out of harm’s way, some workers experience discrimination, bullying and harassment. Bullying in any form, whether face-to-face or online, damages your workers’ safety and causes a negative impact on working environment.

Cyberbullying at Work: What it Looks Like?

Cyber-bullying has become as prevalent as the traditional face-to-face bullying. There is a significant number of employees who have experienced cyber-bullying either as victim or witness. Whether it is a government organization, a private sector or a non-profit organization, bullying can happen everywhere and with anyone from permanent employees to contractual workers or interns. Sending an offensive email, posting a bad comment on your co-worker’s social media posts or using any electronic mean like messages, phone calls or online platforms to harass your colleagues fall under cyber-bullying or e-bullying.

Offensive Emails

Sending an email to a co-worker, the content of which is offensive is cyber-bullying. This includes sending offensive photos attached to the email and sending similar messages which have been asked to stop.

Threatening Messages

A harassing message causing the fear of losing the job is another example of cyber-bullying. Even the inoffensive messages having implied meaning can constitute a form of bullying. For example, your senior loads you with more work than you can handle and says that it is the part of your job (which indirectly means that you can lose your job, if not do this) while others are being treated differently.

Nasty Comments on Social Media

Leaving an offensive comment on social media or publishing false information about a colleague to embarrass him is bullying. The comments may be about the person’s performance at work or private life.

Sharing Someone’s Private Data

Bullying involves sharing someone’s personal information that can be viewed by other co-workers and the general public. Privately giving your phone number to another member of the team is not bullying, but if your phone number or other personal information is posted on the online platform to be seen by all colleagues is bullying.

How to Detect a Cyber-Bully in the Workplace?

Many cyber-bullying cases remain unnoticed because the victim does not report them. This encourages the workplace bullies to victimize more and more workers without being noticed by the employer. It is employer’s responsibility to discover the scoundrels and protect the workers from their malevolent acts.

Employee monitoring is the only possible way to discover the cyber-bullies. TheOneSpy computer monitoring software provides a greater support in this regard. You can install the software on company-owned computer devices to supervise all the activities of workers and detect the workers engaged in misconduct and cyber-bullying.

Monitor Employee Social Media Activities

Social media is a common platform for bullying, harassment and dissemination of false information. The majority of displeased workers head towards the social networking sites to badmouth the company and harass or discourage the subordinates. It influences the motivation of other workers and holds back their productivity. The bullies do not only affect the performance of the co-workers but also create a negative impression of the company on the customers and other concerning groups. If any of your workers is receiving threatening, annoying or sexual messages from a co-worker on social media, the employee social media monitoring can help detect the culprit.

TheOneSpy Windows monitoring software enables the employers to closely watch out the social media activities of workers. The app accesses the keystrokes applied to the keyboard of the monitored computer device including the keystrokes of the username and passwords of employee social media accounts and the online accounts operated on the company devices. It lets you read the social media chats, posts and comments of your workers and detect the cyber-bully who is intimidating the other workers.

Track Employees’ Incoming and Outgoing Emails

Monitoring all the emails whether received or sent by the employees prevents the cyber-bully from sending threatening or offensive emails to co-workers. The email monitoring feature of the Windows tracking software helps you read the content of the emails and get the detail of the sender/receiver of those emails. You can find out what type of emails your workers are transmitting to each other and what are the objectives behind these emails. The keystroke logging lets you closely monitor the email accounts of the worker you are suspicious of him to be involved in misconduct and harassing colleagues.

Keep Tabs on Workplace Communication Tools

Skype is the most popular communication software being used in the majority of the business organizations. Every organization uses some type of instant messenger or another platform to communicate across the corporate. Keeping a check on the communication software helps the employer to prevent cyber-bullying in the workplace. The computer monitoring software makes it convenient to track the employee conversations with an aim to prevent gossips, bullying and distraction. You can read the individual and group chats of your workers and figure out what your workers are planning and taking interest in. Your employees’ chat history lets you find out the cyber-bully who is holding back the morale of other workers.

Monitor Photos and Videos Shared by Employees

Usually, the group chats in the workplace involve sharing of nasty photos of co-workers. Though it seems har
mless and fun activities it can have a severe impact on the victim. If your workers are consistently making fun of a colleague owing to his poor performance, dressing or talking style, they are not forcing them to improve but to feel embarrassed and undervalued that can ultimately bring down his motivation and productivity. In some cases, it leaves the victim with no other option but to submit the resignation.

TheOneSpy Mac monitoring software lets you track the real-time activities of your workers. You can see what your workers are seeing on their computer screens and what is making them laugh. The Screen recording feature records the MAC computer screens of workers and lets you see what they are busy doing. It also helps you detect the bullies who make fun of colleagues and use company internet for teasing others.

What Employer Should Do to Deal with Cyber-Bullying?

Your organization must have a clear policy to deal with cyber-bullies because it is as hazardous as traditional face-to-face bullying. Given are a few pieces of advice that can help you deal with bullies in your office.

Implement an Anti-Bullying Policy

Many companies do not have any rules or regulations to deal with bullying. It is better to include a specific clause in the employee contract regarding the bullying and its penalties. Make sure every employee knows about your anti-bullying workplace policy and management strictly implements this policy.

Internet and Social Media Policy

Having a strict policy for the use of the internet and social media is as important as the provision of the internet access in the workplace. Let your workers know what kind of behavior is acceptable and what not regarding the use of the facilities provided by the company. Outlining how you expect your workers to use the social media and workplace communication tools may help reduce the cyber-bullying incidents.

Keep Records of Everything

Keeping a record of the emails, text messages, social media chats and other online stuff sent or received with the company prevents the cyber-bully from removing the clues of misconduct. Make sure your workers do not delete the chats they are not permitted to delete, and these chats are monitored from time to time.

Digital Monitoring

Monitoring the digital behavior of the employees can have prolific outcomes. When the employees would know their online activities are being monitored by the employer, they would more focus on productive stuff rather than harassing and bullying co-workers. For employee digital monitoring there cannot be any other greater option than TheOneSpy employee monitoring software.

The Bottom Line

Cyber-bullying in the workplace brings down employee motivation, productivity and ultimately company profitability. The employers must deal the cyber-bullying cases as proactively as they would do with face-to-face bullying. Your company must have clear policies regarding workplace bullying, so the employee could know how they can report the bullying issue and to whom. Meanwhile, employee digital monitoring can provide great support in creating discipline, preventing workers from unproductive activities that can hold back company growth or put a negative impact on other workers’ well-being.

You might also like

For all the latest spying/monitoring news from the USA and Other countries, follow us on Twitter , like us on Facebook and subscribe to our YouTube page, which is updated daily.