WORKPLACE BULLYING BY THE NUMBERS
Bullying is more common and harmful than many may think. Help us make it illegal.
Who Is Involved in Workplace Bullying
74.8 Million Workers Affected by Workplace Bullying
Workplace bullying costs money, lives, and peace of mind and body. It's long past time to make workplace bullying illegal. [Resource: Workplace Bulling Institute Report- https://workplacebullying.org/2024-wbi-us-survey/
Bullies and Targets
Bullies
Estimated .7% of working population are bullies
Bullies are split into 71% are male and 29% are female
Bullies are Asian, African American/Black, Hispanic/Latino, and White
Targets
Estimated 32% of working population are bullying targets
Targets are split into 46% are male, 48% female, and 6% nonbinary
Targets (National average 32.4%) are most often Hispanic/Latino (33.5%) followed by White (30.1%), African America/Black (44.3%), then Asian (25.9%)
Innocent Bystanders
Witness
Estimated 14% of workers have witnessed bullying
Affected
46% of workers have been affected by bullying
Aware
72% of workers are aware of bullying
Teens
The US has almost 7 million teen workers. Teen experience, witness, and engage in workplace bullying, too.
There is good data on school-based bullying, but workplace bullying has not been widely and systemically tracked.
Bully versus Target
Employee Ranks
Bully Rank to Target
Higher 55%
Same 29%
Lower 10%
Target Status
Non-Management 54%
Management 38%
Bully Tactics
Lone Bully 75%
Bullying Mob 25%
Politics
Bullying impacts span political leanings: conservative (44%), liberal (44%), and populist/socialist (57%)
Bullying impacts span gender identity: hetero-sexual (45%), homo-sexual (54%) and LGBT+ (68%)
Employers and Workplace Bullying
Employers bear the ultimate responsibility for addressing bullying. Sixty-nine percent of respondents believed that public disrespect is brought into workplaces.
Unfortunately, there aren't any antibullying laws to hold them accountable when they engage in or allow bullying to happen.
[Resource: Workplace Bulling Institute Report-https://workplacebullying.org/2024-wbi-us-survey/
Employer Responses to
Bullying Complaints
Negative
Estimated 56% of employers reacted negatively to to bullying complaints. Employers either encouraged, defended, rationalized, or discounted complaints.
Positive
Another 44% responded positively. The acknowledged, eliminated, or condemned bullying.
Bullying Complaint Outcomes
Negative
62% of targets experience negative outcomes such as termination, transferred, forced to quit, or voluntarily quit.
27% of bullies experience negative outcomes such as punishment while retaining job, termination, or voluntarily quit.
Positive
9% of Employers responded positively by stopping the behavior
2% of coworkers responded by stopping the bully.
Employees Support Laws against Anti-Bullying in the Workplace
Reasons for Bullying
Target personal factors or filing complaints (21%)
Organizational retaliation, poor management response, and poor HR response (38%)
Perpetrator personal factors (32%) and lack of coworker intervention (9%)
Law Support
95% of worker support laws.
5% of workers oppose laws.
Support by ideological: conservative (82%), moderate (75%), liberal (92%), and populist/socialist (93%)
Support by political party: republican (84%), democrat (92%), and independent (85%)
Human and Financial Costs of Workplace Bullying
Workplace bullying costs lives, money, and peace of mind and body. It's long past time to make workplace bullying illegal.
Financial Costs of Bullying
Absenteeism
Existing research estimates that employee absenteeism costs employers $3,600 a year per hourly employee and $2,650 a year for every salaried employee.
https://www.investopedia.com/terms/a/absenteeism.asp
Turnover
Bully targets have a 67% likelihood of posing their jobs. Responding to a lost employee costs employers billions of dollars. https://workplacebullying.org/2021-wbi-survey/
Legal
Bullying is a form of harassment.
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Average cost to defend harassment lawsuit: $250,000
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Average jury award: $600,000+
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Average annual hidden cost of harassment: $300 to $1,000 per employee.
https://www.winbeforetrial.com/the-financial-costs-of-harassment.html
Mental Health Costs of Bullying
Healthcare Costs
Specific healthcare costs due to bullying was not found. Data collection is another reason why a law is needed. Employers pay for sick days and insurance premiums. "Civilian employers paid 81 percent of premiums for single medical care coverage in March 2024, while workers participating in these plans paid 19 percent. Employers paid 78 percent of premiums for workers with the lowest 25 percent of wages and 82 percent of premiums for those with the highest 10 percent of wages." Bureau of Labor Statistics, The Economics Daily, March 2024
Six Common Mental Health Issues
•Anxiety
•Depression
•Sleep problems
•Psychological distress
•Post Traumatic stress
•Suicide Ideation
Costs in Lives
Research revealed that victims of bullying had double the chance of later suicidal ideation than non-bullied.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4605166/
Workers who experienced bullying had consistently 1.5–2 times higher chance of active suicidal ideation.
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC7068571/
Researchers found the risk of suicidal behavior, including both suicide attempts and death by suicide, increased among men who experienced workplace bullying. These men had no previous history of suicide attempts or diagnosed mental disorders.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9888442/
Population-based cohort studies from Finland, Sweden, and Denmark found a 1·3 times higher risk of suicide death or attempt among employees who experienced workplace violence. There was a potentially increased risk in persons who experienced workplace bullying when compared with persons who did experience such bullying. The risk was greater amongst men than women.
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanpub/article/PIIS2468-2667(23)00096-8/fulltext
Costs in Violence
Unfortunately, specific data on violence costs due to workplace bullying was not found. Data collection is another reason why a law is needed. We know bullying-related violence happens based on the following reports.
Accused Half Moon Bay gunman says he suffered ‘years of bullying’ as authorities investigate ‘deplorable’ farm conditions.
New Hire Shoots, Kills Co-Worker Over Bullying Claims
https://www.mbtmag.com/video/video/22198004/new-hire-shoots-kills-coworker-over-bullying-claims
Bullying leads to fatal workplace shooting in Michigan
https://www.ishn.com/articles/107889-bullying-leads-to-fatal-workplace-shooting-in-mich
Did Depression or an Alleged Bully Boss Prompt Editor's Suicide?
Potential Workplace Bullying Leads to Tragedy
https://www.careersolvers.com/career-management/potential-workplace-bullying-leads-to-tragedy/
Workers' Comp Bars Claim That Bullying Led to Employee's Suicide
Postal worker’s mother says he was bullied before shooting
