Startling Statistics on Workplace Abuse

workplacev iolenceA little holiday story caught our eye. Work is the last thing people are grateful for.



Generally work life in America has gone downhill and downhill fast. We're not talking about the millions who can't find a job, or the stagnant wages, but for the ones still working, it's anything goes at work, including bullying and abuse.

Bullying in the workplace is common. In 2007, before the recession half of all workers had at least witnessed some form of workforce bullying. Of those bullied, 57% were women. A 2010 Careerbuilder survey showed 37% of all employees directly experienced workplace bullying.

The Workplace Bullying Institute is trying to raise awareness of abuse in the workplace as well as lobbying States to pass worker protections legislation. So far thirteen states have laws on the books to prevent abuse in the workplace. Yet lawsuits are thrown out by the courts and the message clearly is offenders in the workplace can get completely away with it.

In a case cited by David Yamada, a professor and founding director of the New Workplace Institute at Suffolk University Law School in Boston, a physician in Arkansas abused an employee for two years, called her a “slut,” and told her repeatedly that women who work outside the home are “whores and prostitutes.” Making matters worse, he threatened to kill her if she quit. In its decision, an Arkansas court ruled that even if the allegations were true, they still didn’t add up to intentional affliction of emotional stress. “Many targets say, ‘I’m just being crushed at work,’ ” Yamada says. “And the lawyers are telling them this type of mistreatment is completely legal.”

A recent survey found:

  • Women bullies target women in 80% of cases
  • Bullying is 4X more prevalent than illegal harassment (2007)

Workplace abuse costs money too and it's the #1 reason people look for new jobs.


Workplace violence is the 4th cause of death at the workplace and the leading cause of workplace death for women. If the workplace is the non-combat military, it's even worse.

We've all heard the horror stories of people going postal and committing mass murder in the workplace. After the initial shock, the press reports how deranged and disturbed the person who committed the crimes was. The work environment, bullying, scapegoating and targeting someone is rarely mentioned, even though way too often mass murder at work continues to happen. The focus is always on the individual as the lone psycho powder keg instead of combustible work environments which fuel the flames. The documentary Murder by Proxy is a film mainly documenting a failed attempt to get a workplace anti-bullying law passed in the State of Washington. Contained within a descriptions of workplace mass murder and the conditions of the work environment before the tragedies happened. It's some serious food for thought on how work in this country has turned into a nightmare for so many and a few go right over the edge into evil.



What has happened to America? Turning work into one big survivor game has at minimum made most miserable, is sacrificing many their state of well being and potentially is costing some their lives.



Women aren't bullied more

at least by men. I love the intent of this so-called 'analysis' trying to breakdown that women are bullied more. From the article -
38% of bullies are women. women target other women 80% of the time. So 30.4% of bullying is woman on woman. Women overall are targets 57% of the time (or is it 58, the article used both numbers. I assumed rounding). 58-30.4 = 27.6. 62% of bullies are men. 27.6/62 = 44.5% Male bullies are less likely to target women than men. They target men 55% of the time and women 45% of the time.

You must have Javascript enabled to use this form.

women are bullied more

Nice spin on some bad math. 60% of bullies are men, see here. The statistics show if a woman is a bully, she will take out her aggression more often on another woman instead of a male, but males bully women.

You must have Javascript enabled to use this form.