A third of staff face bullying in higher education

The survey of almost 4,000 staff across 20 colleges and universities in the country found such bullying or negative actions against a person affected their mental health and wellbeing. Picture: iStock
A third of workers in Irish higher education institutions (HEI) say they have been bullied in work over the past three years, with the perpetrator reported as a senior colleague in more than half of cases.
Minority groups, “such as LGBTQ+ respondents, ethnic minorities and respondents with a disability were more likely to endure negative acts at work, bullying and cyberbullying compared to majority groups” according to the study from the Dublin City University (DCU) Anti-Bullying Centre.
The survey of almost 4,000 staff across 20 colleges and universities in the country found such bullying or negative actions against a person affected their mental health and wellbeing.
Researchers said: “Approximately 20% of respondents were likely to ‘always’ experience sadness and a bad mood and about 25% felt ‘always’ tense and nervous because of enduring negative acts at work.
“Approximately 15% felt ‘always’ inactive and with low energy and approximately 20% felt ‘always’ tired and unrested when waking up due to enduring negative acts at work.”
Of the third who said they had experienced bullying, 32% experienced it “every now and then” and 33% said they experienced it “several times per semester”. Just under one in six said they experienced it several times a month.
When asked the duration of the bullying, more than 70% said it had been going on for “several months”.
Workers were asked if they endured negative acts at work, either work-orientated or personal.
Under the category of work-orientated acts, this included someone withholding information which affected their performance, repeated reminders of their errors or mistakes, or persistent criticism of their work or effort.
Under the personal category were things like “being ignored or excluded”, the spreading of gossip or rumours about them or having insulting or offensive comments made about their person, attitudes or private life.
In all, 28% of respondents said they were subjected to work-orientated negative acts “now and then”. This rose to 41.5% for people reporting someone withholding information from them “now and then”, which affected their performance.
The survey saw 26% of workers report experiencing negative acts on a personal level “now and then”, with three in 10 saying they had gossip or rumours spread about them occasionally.
Within the survey, respondents who did not disclose their demographic information such as gender, sexual orientation or work area were more likely to endure bullying compared to those who disclosed such information.
“These findings suggest that employees who endure bullying at work might be afraid of reporting their negative experiences even when data are collected anonymously,” researchers said.
When it came to witnessing bullying in work, just over one third indicated they had seen it in the previous three years. A similar proportion said witnessing this bullying was detrimental for their mental health, while half said they had taken some action after witnessing it.
Dr Angela Mazzone, from the DCU Anti-Bullying Centre who led the analysis, said: “Providing HEI staff with awareness-raising initiatives and training opportunities along with a sustained effort towards a more inclusive organisational culture are among the recommended strategies to tackle workplace bullying in HEIs.”
- If you are affected by any of the issues raised in this article, please click here for a list of support services.