Bullying makes men leave the labor market

https://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2016-12/au-bmm121216.php

Public Release: 12-Dec-2016
Bullying makes men leave the labor market
Long-term consequences of workplace bullying on sickness absence
Aarhus University

Bullying in the workplace doubles women's sickness absence, leads to an increased use of antidepressants and affects women's health negatively and for a long time. On the other hand, men are twice as likely to leave the labour market for a period of time after they have been subjected to bullying. This is the result of new interdisciplinary research from Aarhus BSS - Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen.

In the study, seven per cent of the respondents reported that they are being subjected to bullying. Of these, 43 per cent are men. A total of 3182 people in both public and private organisations have participated.

•••••

Together with her colleagues from the University of Copenhagen, Tine Mundbjerg Eriksen has recently published her research in the recognised journal of Labour Economics, and according to her, it was a surprise to learn that bullying does not seem to increase men's sickness absence.

"In fact, it seems that men who are bullied are more likely than women to go to work even though they're actually sick. At the same time, it appears that bullying affects men's salary level negatively, which indicates that the bullying hampers their opportunities for pay increases and promotions. One way of bullying is that your colleagues or your boss impede your ability to do your job properly, make changes to your work or hand the fun and important tasks to others."

When it comes to the type and frequency of bullying, the research shows that men are just as exposed to work or personal-related bullying as women, but are actually slightly more exposed to physical intimidation than women.

Previous studies have shown that bullying causes the same symptoms as post-traumatic stress disorder and that bullying causes more long-term sickness than e.g. violence, threats and sexual harassment. Back in 2003, the organisation "Lederne" determined that bullying costs approx. two million work days a year.

•••••

All of the results in the new study remain the same, even when the researchers account for factors such as the person's previous sickness absence, attachment to the labour market, personality, the workplace's characteristics, and so on.

•••••