Bullies force increase in staff seeking medical treatment
The open access public meeting is organised by the Royal College of Physicians in Ireland and will highlight the growing number of workers presenting to GPs with bullying-related stress and other symptoms.
One of the speakers at the conference, Dr John
McDermott of the RCPI’s Faculty of Occupational Medicine, said, in addition to a growing number of people presenting with illness as a result of workplace bullying, the symptoms were increasingly serious.
“We are seeing people off for a long period because of symptoms like stress due to workplace conditions, including bullying,” he said.
He said there was no statistical data regarding the scale of the problem as yet, however, a survey by the ESRI published earlier this year showed that around 159,000 people, or 7.9% of respondents, had experienced bullying or harassment at work in the previous six months.
The study also showed that the incident rate was higher in the public sector than in the private sector and that areas such as education, public administration, health and social work, transport and communications had experienced higher rates of bullying complaints.
Last month’s global conference on suicide in Killarney also heard that as many as a fifth of suicides annually in Ireland might be due to the effects of workplace bullying and harassment.
Dr McDermott said that while some people might view difficulties at work as simply affecting their happiness in their job, other people were affected in their home and family life because of difficulties in the workplace.
“A lot of people can cope with it fine, but they will suffer physical symptoms like headaches, going without food or abdominal pain. Then you will get people off for a prolonged period of time from work.
“Certainly we are seeing a higher incidence of stress-related psychological symptoms where bullying is much more often a factor.”
He said he would be recommending that the Dignity At Work Charter, as provided for under health and safety legislation, should be made compulsory for each company.
“It is a good starting point of anti-bullying strategy and should be part of overall risk assessment,” he said.
However, he said he would not be in favour of a register of workplace bullying, and that instead early intervention and reporting of incidents by victims or their colleagues was key.
The public meeting on bullying and harassment in the workplace will take place at the Royal College of Physicians in central Dublin from 6pm on September 19.
