Bullying, assaults and other stress-related problems in the workplace are reaching a scale where companies can no longer afford to ignore them, a conference on organisational stress has been told. The conference began in Dublin yesterday and continues today.
The Minister of State for Labour Affairs, Mr Tom Kitt, said: "Bullying in the workplace is only beginning to receive public attention. Most people believe they left the problem behind them in the schoolyard." It was often harder for an adult than a child to acknowledge they were being bullied.
But bullying was a form of violence that should not be tolerated by management or colleagues of the victim, Mr Kitt added. In extreme cases bullying could result in "serious depression, breakdown or even suicide". It was not always easy to distinguish between aggressive management and bullying, Mr Kitt said. But ultimately employers had to take responsibility for ensuring their company did not encourage or condone bullying. Otherwise, they could face prosecution under the 1989 Safety, Health and Welfare at Work Act.
"Many companies are all stressed up with nowhere to go," according to Prof Ciaran O'Boyle of University College, Dublin.
A recent UCD study showed stress was endemic for managers. Two out of three believed stress caused tension with colleagues and loss of job satisfaction. Forty-nine per cent of them worked late or took work home because they could not cope with working hours and 42 per cent suffered from stress-related health problems.
Managers were often used as scapegoats in crises, which made it all the harder for them to show the competence, knowledge and dynamism required.
Prof O'Boyle suggested that greater participation by employees in an enterprise, greater recognition of their role, openness, empowerment and plain humanity would create greater self-esteem and reduce stress and bullying.
Employees also suffered increased violence at work, Ms Marian Gibson of the South and East Belfast Health and Social Services Trust said.
Sometimes the attacks were for material gain, such as bank raids. But they could also be by people with revenge motives, or who vent their frustration with poor services on staff.
Managers needed to be trained in how to respond to the practical and emotional needs of staff following such incidents, she said.