Could Witnesses Also Suffer From Workplace Bullying?

When you see someone is being bullied in the workplace, you can be concerned for their wellbeing. However, a recent study has found that, as a witness, workplace bullying can take its toll on your wellness too. The Finnish study, which was published last month in the journal BMJ Open, showed that just being exposed to aggressive behaviour, even if it doesn’t directly affect you, can still make you more likely to have prescriptions for antidepressants, sleeping pills and tranquilizers.

There has been previous research proving that mental wellness-damaging effects of workplace bullying, but the authors of this study noted that it still wasn’t clear whether the impact was the same for victims and witnesses of bullying, or whether or not it lead to a greater need for drug treatment. Therefore, the team of researchers interviewed over 6,600 employees in Helsinki, Finland, aged 40 to 60, about any workplace bullying they saw or experienced between 2000 and 2002, to shed more light on the issue.

The results were that 5% of employees admitted to being bullied currently, with 18% of women and 12% of men saying they had been bullied before, whether that was in their current or previous jobs. Roughly half of the participants said that had witnessed at least occasional incidences of bullying in the workplace, with 10% saying they had seen it often.

Furthermore, the investigators discovered that women who were bullied at work were 50% more likely to have a prescription for antidepressants, sleeping pills or tranquilizers, compared to their non-bullied counterparts, while this likelihood doubled for men who were victims of bullying at work. Respectively, women and men who witnessed bullying at work were 53 percent and nearly twice as likely, to be prescribed such drugs. However, no cause-and-effect relationship was proved.

The study was led by Tea Lallukka, formerly of the department of public health at the University of Helsinki, and currently of the department of sociology at the University of Surrey, who, with her colleagues, concluded the study’s report by saying, ‘Workplace bullying needs to be tackled proactively in an effective way to prevent its adverse consequences for mental health’.