Acas analysis for anti-bullying week reveals workplace bullying is on the rise ⁰

Workplace bullying is on the rise but many people are too afraid to talk about it according to a new study by Acas published to mark the beginning of anti-bullying week. The paper Seeking better solutions: tackling bullying and ill-treatment in Britain’s workplaces looks at the latest research on workplace bullying as well as calls to the Acas helpline. The analysis claims that bullying and ill-treatment is growing in Britain; and there are more incidents of bullying within certain groups such as public sector minority ethnic workers; women in traditionally male-dominated occupations; workers with disabilities or long-term health problems; lesbian, gay and bisexual and transgender people; and workers in health care. The helpline has received around 20,000 calls over the past year with some callers reporting that bullying caused them to self-harm or consider suicide.

Acas Chair, Sir Brendan Barber, said: “Our analysis reveals that bullying is on the rise in Britain and it is more likely to be found in organisations that have poor workplace climates where this type of behaviour can become institutionalised.

“Callers to our helpline have experienced some horrific incidents around bullying that have included humiliation, ostracism, verbal and physical abuse. But managers sometimes dismiss accusations around bullying as simply personality or management style clashes whilst others may recognise the problem but lack the confidence or skills to deal with it.

“Businesses should be taking workplace bullying very seriously as the annual economic impact of bullying-related absences, staff turnover and lost productivity is estimated to be almost £18 billion.”

Bullying and harassment is any unwanted behaviour that makes someone feel intimidated, degraded, humiliated or offended. Calls to the Acas helpline around bullying revealed:

• Barriers to people making complaints such as the fear that trying to do something about unwanted behaviour might make the situation worse;
• Ill-treatment from other staff often built up to the point where people dreaded going to work, their family and home life had been affected and many took leave to escape the workplace;
• Inexperienced employers can feel they lack the skills to go through complex grievance and disciplinary procedures that bullying allegations may involve; and
• Managers alerted to bullying allegations can favour simply moving staff around rather than investigating and dealing with underlying behaviours.

Brendan Barber added: “Anti-bullying workplace policies and managers with good people management skills are essential to deal with the growing problem of bullying.

“Our study shows that encouraging a positive workplace climate is just as important as it allows people to have the confidence to report bullying when it occurs.

“This paper shines a light on workplace bullying with recommendations around how it can be tackled more effectively in the workplace.”

The study recommends that workplaces agree standards of acceptable and unacceptable behaviours and senior leaders act as role models for these standards.

To see the full research report and Acas’ guides for employers and employees on how to deal with bullying, visit: www.acas.org.uk/bullying