Little Stories About Work consists of informative and thought-provoking short explainer video-like animated stories about workplace bullying and various undesired behaviors and situations that are not necessarily bullying but still may be problematic and inappropriate. The project presents entire but succinct stories and bits of longer narratives. You will find themes about mocking; belittling; berating; yelling; verbal abuse; breaking privacy and pestering; spreading rumors; overloading with work; cutting off guidelines, information, taking away responsibilities and tasks; making unachievable demands; blocking leave, training and promotion; blame games; marginalization; mob ostracism; physical threats and violence. Some animations portray problematic workers and their intrigues against others, some show organizational causes of bullying, but in the end, there is some positivity in them too. We also propose descriptions and comments on every animation to shed light on this complex and touchy phenomenon.

 

Such visual resources can be used for group training, workshops, individual learning, and even messaging every day to deliver a new learning experience.  Owners, companies’ management, Human Resource specialists and trainers can use the project to reduce ongoing negative practices and improve the working environment directly. In the long run, it can help to create an organizational culture free from bullying, help to bring more employee wellbeing into the workplace, and achieve broader business goals such as retention and refining employer brand. Our project is a systematic approach inspired by real-life stories and professional knowledge. You can consider animated stories as incidents that might occur in your company and “little” case studies about recurring unacceptable behaviour in the workplace. Of course, the animations can be complemented with other professional materials such as the legal aspect of bullying and harassment.

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The training material is easier to implement when the situation between people is not too severe and can be calmed through talks and training like in mild to moderate cases of bullying and its early stages. You can still combine it with a more formal disciplinary action as a part of obligatory training along with a warning. In both cases, this gets workers motivated to avoid being accused of acting against anyone, even if they are not aware they are doing it. This vehicle can also be used as a preventive measure to raise awareness and get more insight into employees’ relationships. According to polls and researches, these problems are widespread and recurrent yet apparently are too often trivialized.

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Not all people are educated and well informed about bullying, so they may not have even the basic knowledge and skills to identify and combat it. Apparently, it is assumed that employees have somehow learned it at school, or they are well-brought-up. But in reality, some people are regularly prone to be difficult co-workers while others are vulnerable. They may not be fully aware of their situation as they cannot recognize concrete, often subtle and veiled, examples of unacceptable behavior. The other party to the conflict do interpret it in their own way. Also, people involved in such stressful and complex situations may be frozen; they remain passive and maintain the status quo. Let’s make them re-think it!

 

If you want to get people to really learn, you can give an overview of the topic and then go on to examples illustrated by our clips, all of them or picked by you. Educational, clear, concise and not dull visual illustrations alongside descriptions make the little stories about work a compelling material to spice up lessons and discussions. Thanks to used techniques and means of expression, the animations present serious things in a lighter and sometimes humorous way or from a different perspective, however some of them can bring a bit of controversy on a personal level.  All these make trainees think the topics deeper and can have a stronger impact on people’s memory, attitudes, and behavior, which is ultimately beneficial for the entire team at the organizational level. Last but not least, it can amuse and engage attendees too.

 

So, have you had a hunch, heard rumors, or spotted anything suspicious? Or maybe you just think that prevention is better than cure? There are two options, and both plans offer easy, convenient, and cost-effective solutions to improve interpersonal skills.

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Plan A. You can enhance an awareness training session or workshop with our illustrations. Let’s think outside the box, stimulate imagination, and spice conversations up with the short animated stories. If this option is too awkward, disruptive, or simply difficult to organize, then consider individual learning.

 

Plan B. You can give all sides of the difficult and challenging situation an individual subscription to our website and suggest in a tactful way that they look at issues from some other perspective. They can watch and reflect on the clips individually to gain more insight into their own or someone else’s behavior. Give them a chance to draw conclusions on their own and watch the progress.

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We can also illustrate themes selected by your company and tailored to its problems or even someone’s personal story. It will take some time to create the new little stories, but you will get reusable resources to combat regular issues in your workplace.

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