Bullying and harassment


Employers have a duty to provide a safe and healthy working environment. This includes protection from bullying and harassment. However, a recent poll carried out by YouGov for the TUC revealed that:


• nearly a third of people (29%) are bullied at work;


• women (34%) are more likely to be victims of bullying than men (23%);


• the highest prevalence of workplace bullying is amongst 40 to 59-year-olds, where 34% of adults are affected;


• in nearly three-quarters (72%) of cases, the bullying is carried out by a manager; and


• more than one in three (36%) people leave their job as a result of bullying.


The survey also showed that nearly half (46%) of people said that bullying has an adverse impact on their performance at work, and the same amount believed it has a negative effect on their mental health. More than a quarter (28%) said it has a detrimental effect on them physically, and around one in five (22%) had to take time off work as a result of being bullied. 


The TUC survey followed a survey by law firm Slater and Gordon. It commissioned a survey of 2,000 workers in August 2015 and found that almost six in ten workers have either experienced or witnessed bullying at work. Thirty seven percent of those questioned reported having been bullied themselves and a further 21% had witnessed colleagues being subjected to abuse. The bullying reported included intimidation, being humiliated in front of colleagues and being excluded from social events. Almost a quarter said they were shouted at, and one in 20 had things thrown at them.


Two-thirds of those who had experienced bullying reported that a colleague had been subjected to a sustained period of harassment. But while 37% of those questioned had been bullied themselves and a further 21% had witnessed colleagues being subjected to abuse, less than half (48%) did anything about it. A quarter thought that bullying was just part of their workplace culture, 20% feared becoming the target of the bully themselves, and one in ten feared losing their job if they complained. One in six of those who had witnessed colleagues being bullied reported that a co-worker had been subjected to inappropriate sexual remarks, while one in ten had heard racist insults.