An Overview of Cyberbullying

            
             Cyber bullying occurs when one employee uses email, blogs, text messaging, instant messaging, or social media to harass another employee. Cyber bullying is becoming an expanding crisis in the workplace because people are becoming increasingly dependent on 'social' technology. The underlying issue is that employees misuse company technology for personal satisfaction/gain. According to the American Management Association, 'nonproductive or potentially dangerous' messages account for nearly 35% of all company email. Not only is it personally detrimental to the victim, but the company suffers from every instance of cyber bullying as well. .
             Why do employees engage in cyber bullying?.
             Employees engage in cyber bullying to intentionally harass, humiliate, intimidate, or sabotage a fellow employee. Although the initial cause/reason may differ, most cyber bullies attempt to gain control, power, or dominance over their victims. In many cases, the bully tries to teach the victim a lesson by making him or her feel inferior. If two employees are competing for a promotion, for example, one employee may try to sabotage the other by making him/her feel inadequate. He or she might text the other employee with a sarcastic compliment or harsh criticism. Although this example may seem simple or unthreatening, cyber bullies tend to push disputes to the extreme. In other words, cyber bullies won't stop harassing their victims until they elicit a negative emotion/reaction.
             What are the effects of cyber bullying in the workplace?.
             Depending on the individual person and circumstances, victims tend to react differently to cyber bullying. Generally speaking, certain personality types are more or less prone to respond to the cyber bully's taunting. Strong-willed and hardworking employees, for example, don't respond as negatively as the passive-aggressive and modest employees do. Similarly, a coworker who responded rudely to a grammatically incorrect email is not automatically classified as a cyber bully.