26/02/2010
10.8% of the respondents to a Danish survey reported to have been subject to bullying. Some 1.4% of the respondents experience bullying at least once a week, while 9.4% experience it occasionally. Furthermore, 26.5% of the 3,363 workers who took part in the survey reported to have witnessed bullying at their workplace. The results of the survey, which was carried out between 2006 and 2008 in 60 companies, were published last September in a study aimed at investigating physiological and mental health effects of bullying.

The study confirms that bullying leads to sleep disorders and symptoms of severe stress among victims. Moreover, witnesses to bullying are found to react in the same manner, albeit to a lesser degree. On the positive side, systematic and frequent exposure to bullying is quite limited. However, negative behaviour in the workplace is very common, with 79.5% of the respondents being exposed at least sometimes to work-related negative acts.

It appears that men are somewhat more exposed and somewhat more likely to witness bullying than women. However, the survey finds that women experience bullying as being somewhat more disturbing than men do. The study confirms that the degree to which bullying is experienced as being disturbing is closely related to exposure frequency.

The survey was initiated by the National Research Centre for the Working Environment (Det Nationale Forskningscenter for Arbejdsmiljø).
Source: European Working Conditions Observatory