Bullying rises 43% in the last few years.
Harassment at work or “mobbing” has increased by 43% in the last few years representing more than 2.5 million people.
The current economic crisis means we are in difficult times in terms of finding work, but for some, it is also very difficult to keep their job without suffering some kind of harassment.
It is true that we are in a free market economy, and as such, the law of supply and demand is what drives everything including the job market. The demand for labor is far lower than the supply of labour and that means, the employer is holding all the cards.
Not that any employer is purposefully harrassing its workers, it is just that in the current economic climate, they are more likely to get away with it because workers NEED their jobs more and are unlikely to speak up or quit because they are afraid of losing their gainful employment.
The barometer research, prepared by the Institute of Management Development and Educational Innovation, points out that 70% of cases have been initiated in the last year “resulting from the crisis.”
While in the past, the majority of harrasment taking place in the workplace was directed at women, surprisingly, in the current circumstances, the main subject of harassment is no longer women.
The economic crisis has exacerbated workplace pressure techniques, to have staff perform at higher levels of productivity, to produce more sales, work longer hours, take on more tasks and otherwise have greater expectations of employees than in the past; and it is how employers treat their employees while ‘asking for more’ from them that is causing the increase in harassment cases.
A great post about workplace harassment from a human rights perspective was posted earlier in 2011 at humanrightseachday.com