The Workplace Bullying Institute wrote a survey and commissioned Zogby International to collect data for the first representative study of all adult Americans on the topic of workplace bullying. The survey was sponsored by a generous gift from the Waitt Institute for Violence Prevention; Cindy Waitt, Executive Director. The principal findings convinced doubters that bullying was a substantial problem of epidemic proportions. The key findings of the study are available below.
Key Findings

The results are based on 7,740 respondents who comprised a sample representative of all American adults in August, 2007. The margin of error was +/- 1.1 percentage points.

• 37% of workers have been bullied: 13% currently and 24% previously
• Most bullies are bosses (72%) • More perpetrators are men (60%) than are women (40%)
• Most Targets (57%) are women • Women bullies target women (71%); men target men (54%)
• Bullying is 4 times more prevalent than illegal discriminatory harassment
• 62% of employers ignore the problem
• 45% of Targets suffer stress-related health problems
• 40% of bullied individuals never tell their employers
• Only 3% of bullied people file lawsuits

Prevalence 37% of the U.S. workforce (an est. 54 million Americans) report being bullied at work; an additional 12% witness it. That is a total of 49% of workers. Conversely, 45% report neither experiencing nor witnessing bullying. Hence, a silent epidemic.

A Different Kind of Harassment Bullying is 4 times more common than harassment (based on illegal discrimination). In only one out of five (20%) of bullying cases does discriminatory conduct play a role.

Bullying Damages Employees’ Health The mythology surrounding bullying is that targets complain and litigate frequently. However, 45% of targets experience stress-related health problems. WBI 2003 research found that targeted individuals suffer debilitating anxiety, panic attacks, clinical depression (39%), and even post-traumatic stress (PTSD, 30% of women; 21% of men). In addition, once targeted, a person has a 64% chance of losing the job for no reason. Despite the health harm, 40% never report it. Only 3% sue and 4% complain to state or federal agencies.

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Please click here to visit the website at which you can obtain additional information and download a report of the complete survey results. I also suggest that you check out:

The Bully at Work: What You Can Do to Stop the Hurt and Reclaim Your Dignity on the Job
Gary Namie and Ruth Namie, as well as their more recent book,

The Bully-Free Workplace: Stop Jerks, Weasels, and Snakes From Killing Your Organization

The Cost of Bad Behavior: How Incivility Is Damaging Your Business and What to Do About It Christine M. Pearson and Christine Porath

The No Asshole Rule: Building a Civilized Workplace and Surviving One That Isn’t Robert I. Sutton as well as his more recent book,

Good Boss, Bad Boss: How to Be the Best… and Learn from the Worst