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Study: Workplace bullying continues unabated

Emergency Management Alert, November 20, 2007

In the world of emergency management, practical jokes are part of the culture. For many, gags are a welcome relief from the stress of a job that brings the shocking, the painful, the gruesome, and the sad. Certain fire service blogs encourage contests for the best practical joke.

But to others, practical jokes constitute bullying. The public humiliation of another person is one of the hallmarks of bullying set out by the Workplace Bullying Institute in a report released in September (see the U.S. Bullying Survey at www.bullyinginstitute.org).

The report found that: 

 Bullying causes turnover, with 40% of bullied workers voluntarily leaving jobs
 Targets lose their jobs to make the bullying stop in 77% of cases.
 Bullies bully with near impunity, experiencing negative consequences in only 23% of cases. 

Bullying in the U.S. medical schools is well documented; a recent study reported that, of 2,884 medical students representing 16 U.S. medical schools from the class of 2003, 42% experienced harassment and 84% experienced belittlement while in school. [Source: BMJ, September 30, 2006

Bullying has so plagued the nursing profession that there are entire campaigns to stop it. Not infrequent are articles like this, from www.nurses.com, quoting nurses who said occupational harassment was so out of control that they "end of their rope," "have had it," or are ready to "throw in the towel." 

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