Half of Staff Are Either Bullied or See Bullying at Work
Half of British employees have either been bullied at work or witnessed it, according to a survey by employment law firm Wright Hassell.
And the figure is worse for women, with six out of ten women (59%) being bullied or having seen other people being bullied.
Older workers are most badly affected by bullying with 68% of staff aged between 45 and 54 having either been on the receiving end or witnessing bullying.
All of which is bad news for CEOs: if an employee decides to make a formal complaint and take the employer to a tribunal, the costs and reputational damage to your business can be crippling.
Most concerningly, over a quarter of the 1,026 employees surveyed (26%) do not know where to turn if they are being bullied at work.
Shouting at work
What exactly constitutes bullying at work remains a grey area, with employees being surprisingly permissive about colleagues’ workplace behaviour. This is especially surprising given that we are being told all the time about “woke” workplace culture, with people being hauled up before HR for even “micro aggressions”.
Six out of ten employees (57%) do not think that shouting at work counts as bullying, while over one third (35%) don’t think making a joke at someone’s expense could be considered bullying, nor excluding someone from group meetings (32%).
One in ten people do not even think that intimidation is bullying, and one fifth of people don’t even think spreading rumours about someone is bullying.
Tina Chander, head of employment law at Wright Hassall, said: “In today’s world, where there is so much more awareness about what behaviour is acceptable or not, it’s upsetting to see that 50% of people have witnessed someone being bullied.
“Given that more women have experienced bullying compared to men, and fewer women know what to do, it’s time for workplaces to focus bullying reporting activity on them and make sure that everybody knows what support is available to them.
“At the very least, a workplace should have a bullying and harassment policy in place, but there’s no point in having a policy if no one is aware of it.”
As to whose responsibility it is to sort out bullying in the workplace, more younger people said it was the responsibility of HR departments to sort out bullying.
What CEOs can do stamp out bullying
Given that there is no legal definition of bullying, the first thing CEOs must do is listen to the evidence and then weigh up the facts.
Of course, companies need to have their bullying procedure and grievance process spelt out in the company handbook, as well as staff training on how to spot bullying and what they can do as individuals.
Chander said: “It’s everyone’s responsibility to fix the problem of workplace bullying. HR plays a vital role, as do the leaders, but it’s up to colleagues to care for one another and speak up when behaviour is wrong. No one should suffer in silence.”
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