I’ve just returned from a most amazing experience at the 6th international conference on Bullying. I gained hugely valuable insights and would like to share some of them with you over the next several months.
First, some interesting statics.
In the largest national scientific survey of the phenomenon in the U.S. to date, Zogby International conducted 7740 online interviews of a panel that is representative of the adult population of the U.S. They defines bullying as “repeated mistreatment manifested as either 1) verbal abuse, or 2) conduct which is threatening, humiliating, intimidating, or 3) sabotage that interferes with work, or 4) some combination of the previous three”.
Here are some of their mind-boggling findings (for more, visit the Workplace Bullying Institute online)
• 37% of American workers (54 million people!) have been bullied at work.
• Most Bullies are Bosses – 72%
• 9% of bullying was bottom-up
• For 45% of bullied targets, stress affects their health. 33% suffer for more than one year
• 43% of bullies have an executive sponsor
• 33% thrive because of support from their peers, mostly fellow managers;
• 14% of bullies get help from human resources.
• In 62% of cases, when employers are made aware of bullying, they escalate the problem for the target or simply do nothing, which really makes them an accomplice to the bully
• Targets have to stop the vast majority of bullying (77%) by losing their jobs
• Only 3% of bullied targets file lawsuits. In fact, 40% never even complain!
Lots to think about, that’s for sure!
