As Priti Patel, Home Secretary is facing bullying allegations, it has been revealed that more than a third of employees have left their job due to being bullied at work.
According to the Trades Union Congress (TUC) report in 2015, 36 per cent of employees who said they have been bullied at work resulted in them leaving their job. In December 2019, it was discovered that 28 per cent of the UK workforce experience bullying or discrimination at work.Â
XpertHR, which provide online HR intelligence for employers wants to remind employers that they have a duty to provide a working environment free from bullying and harassment. Employers must make it clear that this sort of behaviour is unacceptable, as well as what employees should do if they believe they are being harassed.
Jo Stubbs, global head of product content strategy at XpertHR’ said:
Bullying can have a significant impact on people’s mental and physical health, leading to increased sickness absence and lower productivity. It can also have a negative effect on engagement and morale and result in increased turnover.
Apart from these detrimental effects on the general working environment, a failure to respond appropriately and in a timely way to a complaint and investigate it thoroughly could lead to a complaint being brought in an employment tribunal.
Employers should have a bullying and harassment policy in place and ensure it is communicated to all staff. It should outline the types of behaviour that will be regarded as bullying or harassment and the consequences that may result from any such behaviour. It should also set out the steps that the organisation will take to investigate any reports of possible bullying or harassment, whether or not a formal complaint has been made.
Several allegations have been made regarding Ms Patel’s behaviour with Sir Philip Rutnam, a top civil servant resigning from his role and filing legal action against the Government due to claims of bullying by Ms Patel.
The TUC gathered this research from a survey of 1,738 employees, gathered by YouGov.
Darius is the editor of HRreview. He has previously worked as a finance reporter for the Daily Express. He studied his journalism masters at Press Association Training and graduated from the University of York with a degree in History.