The cost of bullying to individuals
[ch 1: pages 17-18]The NUT’s Harassment and bullying of teachers: guidance for members, school representatives and health and safety representatives explains: “For those who are harassed or bullied, the result may be stress which can involve anxiety, depression or illness. Harassment and bullying can affect work performance and cause absence from work. Harassment and bullying can have a direct impact upon a person’s mental and physical wellbeing and can have a detrimental impact on their ability to fulfil their potential.”
UNISON says that physical health problems caused by bullying and harassment include stomach problems and sleep difficulties, while those who experience harassment can feel anxious, intimidated, threatened and humiliated.
Guidance produced by the college and lecturers’ UCU union health and safety advisor, Stopping bullying and harassment at work, sets out that the effects of bullying and harassment vary from individual to individual and provides a non-exhaustive list of symptoms that may occur:
• depression;
• skin complaints;
• mental health problems;
• sleeplessness;
• low self-esteem/lack of confidence;
• acute anxiety;
• loss of appetite;
• panic attacks;
• feeling isolated;
• nausea;
• migraine/severe headaches;
• mood swings;
• stomach problems.
Unite points out that bullying and harassment can also affect people’s pay rate and their job itself can even be put at risk.
In extreme cases harassment and bullying has led to self-harm and even suicide:
Journalist Russell Joslin took his own life after being sexually harassed and bullied by a female colleague at Radio Coventry and Warwickshire. While the inquest into his death heard that bullying was just one issue that led Joslin to take his life, the NUJ said it believed that the way he was treated by his employer, the BBC, was a significant factor in his death. In a statement following the outcome of the inquest, it said: “During the inquest, it became clear that Russell told managers at BBC Radio Coventry and Warwickshire several times that he was being sexually harassed and bullied by a female colleague. Yet not once were his complaints taken seriously or investigated.”