One in seven British employees has been bullied at work, according to a new YouGov survey commissioned by the Trades Union Congress (TUC).
The What Workers Want report shows that 40 per cent of people have worked in an organisation where bullying has occurred in the last three years.
It also reveals that middle-aged men working in the public sector and earning between £20,000 and £60,000 per annum are most likely to experience bullying first hand.
Commenting on the findings, TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "Every organisation needs to have an anti-bullying policy and every manager should ensure that there is zero-tolerance of bullying either by line managers or workmates."
According to earlier research carried out by the Unite union, workplace bullying costs employers £14 billion a year in staff absence and lost productivity.
The study revealed that almost 200,000 employees considered resigning from their job last year because of bullying and harassment at work.
