Being constantly undermined by your boss or made the butt of your colleagues’ jokes could have a long-term impact on your health, new research suggests.
The large-scale study of more than 79,000 employees found those who reported workplace bulling, violence or threats of violence at work are more likely to experience heart attacks and stroke than others.
Nine per cent of participants reported being bullied at work and 13 per cent reported experiencing violence or threats of violence at work in the past year. The study also found the more frequent the bullying, the more severe the health outcomes.
A previous report by HuffPost UK found increasing numbers of men in the UK are seeking support for workplace bullying, with many describing the negative impacts on their mental health. But the latest report is the largest of its kind to suggest there may be physical impacts, too.
Examples of workplace bullying can include:
:: Shouting at staff.
:: Spreading malicious rumours about another member of staff.
:: Persistently picking on people, or undermining them, in front of others or in private.
:: Blocking promotion.
:: Regularly and deliberately ignoring or excluding individuals from work activities.
:: Setting a person up to fail by overloading them with work or setting impossible deadlines.
:: Consistently attacking a member of staff in terms of their professional or personal standing.
:: Regularly making the same member of staff the butt of jokes.
The study was based on data from three studies that took place between 1995 and 2011, where working men and women aged 18 to 65, with no history of cardiovascular disease (CVD), were asked about their experiences of bullying or violence in the workplace.
During a follow-up, after adjusting for other lifestyle factors, the researchers found those who were bullied at work had a 59 per cent increased risk of heart disease. Meanwhile those who’d reported violence or threats of violence at work were found to have a 25 per cent higher risk of heart disease.
The latest study is observational and therefore can’t prove workplace bullying causes heart disease, but it does suggest there is a link between the two.
The researchers are currently investigating the science behind the link, but they believe that high blood pressure is likely to be involved, as it’s already known that severe stress can increase blood pressure. In addition, exposure to bullying and violence may lead to anxiety and depression which, in turn, can lead to over-eating and excessive alcohol consumption, they said.
The more bullying or violence encountered, the greater the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD), according to the study. Compared with people who did not suffer bullying, people who reported being bullied frequently (the equivalent to being bullied almost every day) in the past 12 months had 120 per cent higher risk of CVD, while those who were exposed most frequently to workplace violence had a 36 per cent higher risk of cerebrovascular disease (such as stroke) than those not exposed to violence.
Tianwei Xu, a PhD student at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark, who led the study, said: “The effect of bullying and violence on the incidence of cardiovascular disease in the general population is comparable to other risk factors, such as diabetes and alcohol drinking, which further highlights the importance of workplace bullying and workplace violence in relation to cardiovascular disease prevention.
“It is important to prevent workplace bullying and workplace violence from happening, as they constitute major stressors for those exposed. It is also important to have policies for intervening if bullying or violence occurs.”