The cost of bullying to individuals

The Dignity at Work Partnership divided these costs into lost earnings or income, and “human costs” — pain, fear and “a general reduction in the quality of life”. Other costs include long-term social costs, such as divorce or the loss of a home through inability to keep up with mortgage payments.

Public services union UNISON says that people being bullied and harassed report feelings of stress, powerlessness, anger, depression, being undermined, humiliation, fear and shame. Reported psychological effects include severe stress symptoms, anxiety, panic attacks, sleep disturbance, impaired concentration, mistakes and accidents at work, smoking, excessive drinking, and overeating. Reported physical effects include raised blood pressure, heart disease, reduced resistance to infection, stomach and bowel problems, skin disorders, severe loss of self-esteem, fear, anxiety and depression, and even suicide.

One 2004 study suggested that bullied workers go through the same emotions and stresses as battle-scarred soldiers, displaying the main symptoms of post traumatic stress disorder including hyper-arousal, constant anxiety, flashbacks and obsessive thoughts concerning the trauma. Symptoms can continue over a long period. In 65% of those surveyed, the bullying had ended five years previously, but the symptoms remained.

Findings from the Whitehall study into working conditions in the civil service, available from the PCS civil service union, also linked bullying at work to ill health. New research published by The Lancet magazine in 2012 involving 200,000 people across seven European countries also found that people who suffer stress at work have a 23% increased risk of a heart attack.

Many people who suffer bullying or harassment end up leaving their jobs. For example, research by the Equal Opportunities Commission (now the Equality and Human Rights Commission) found that, in over 90% of cases of sexual harassment decided by employment tribunals between 1998 and 2001, the victim later resigned or lost her job.