Everyone knows that workplace bullying is wrong and has a damaging effect on corporate wellness, but many people don’t understand the full extent of what falling victim to such behaviour can have on employees’ wellbeing.
Recent research has shown that bullying in the workplace is, in actual fact, linked to a decline in mental health for those affected, and, consequently, to an increase in the reliance on drug-based treatments in the workplace for mental difficulties such as anxiety, insomnia and depression.
One recent study surveyed 6606 public sector workers in Helsinki in Finland to give answers about their thoughts on workplace bullying that they have both been involved in and been witness to during the previous two years. At the same time, prescriptions for a group of drugs known as ‘psychoactive’ drugs, which includes such things as sedatives, antidepressants, sleeping pills and tranquilisers, for this group of people was monitored for the three year period before the survey and for a further five years afterwards.
Participants were between 40 and 60 years of age, and in this group, one in 20 respondents said that they were currently the victim of workplace bullying. In addition to this, one in five of the women surveyed (around 18 percent) and one in eight of the men (12 percent) stated that they had been bullied in the past. On top of all this, around half of those surveyed said that they had been witness to bullying in the workplace.
The research also highlighted that workplace bullying did appear to lead to prescriptions being issued for psychoactive drugs. Women were thought to be 50 percent more likely to need these types of medication after being bullied, and twice as many men. Even bystanders suffered: around 53 percent of those who had observed bullying were then seen to require some type of medication.
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