Office bullies

There is the violent colleague struggling with outbursts of anger, the one who instead implements a more subtle strategy of tacit suggestion and misbehavior, or the one who pillories others for alleged faults. Worker-on-worker violence, writes Repubblica, is a much less investigated phenomenon than “classic” bullying, i.e., those physical and psychological violations perpetrated by the employer or a superior against employees or subordinates. Yet, case law now explains, horizontal bullying and workplace bullying are far from negligible phenomena.

The research

This is explained by a survey conducted just for the newspaper by Aidp, the Association of Personnel Managers, which shows that the phenomenon of horizontal bullying involves 30 percent of companies, and for 43 percent of the managers surveyed, these are rather frequent episodes. Among the victims, the survey adds, are mostly women and young people. The result of this research, however, is in line with other surveys on the subject, such as the latest from the Workplace Bullying Institute, a research center that has been examining the phenomenon of workplace bullying in the United States for more than 20 years: 30 percent of workers say they have experienced aggressive behavior from co-workers firsthand.

Well-being at work

The most prevalent type of horizontal bullying, according to the Aidp survey of 600 managers, consists of gossip and rumors aimed at discrediting a colleague or weakening him or her if competing for a promotion: cases of this type involve more than 50 percent of participants, for example. Then there is exclusion and boycott, devaluation of opinions in front of superiors, or invasion of privacy. In the absence of a law, the phenomenon is growing, although the courts have formed a kind of bullying code, including horizontal bullying, which expands the employer’s responsibilities for prevention. An increasingly relevant issue now that there is much talk of well-being at work as one of the most attractive factors for companies seeking talent(Bloomberg).