The Campaign Against Workplace Bullying's
Definition of the Phenomenon

Workplace Bullying

  • is the repeated, health-endangering mistreatment of a person (the Target) by a cruel perpetrator (the bully).

  • is best understood through the bully's behaviors--acts of commission (hostile verbal, nonverbal communication and interfering actions) and omission (the withholding of resources--time, information, training, support, equipment--that guarantee failure)--which are all driven by the bully's need to control the Target. (See the categories of adult bullies.)

  • involves the bully alone at first deciding who is targeted, when, where and how psychological violence will be inflicted. Later, others may be coerced to participate in the assaults.

  • is not "tough" management; it is illegitimate behavior, unrelated to accomplishing productive work, so outrageous as to be the antithesis of what a good employer values and encourages.

  • escalates from 1:1 harassment after bullying is reported and the employer responds inappropriately and inadequately to engulfing an entire work unit in chaos, pitting co-workers, management and management's allies against the Target. (See the detailed description of this escalation.)

    Bullying, general harassment, is more prevalent than its more famous and illegal special varieties--sexual harassment and racial discrimination. A recent reliable study estimates that approximately 1 in 6 U.S. workers has directly experienced destructive bullying in the past year. (according to a year 2000 scientific sample of State of Michigan residents)

    Bullies are rarely psychopathic; the majority are opportunistic, intelligently reading the pattern of who gets promoted and who gets drummed out of our competition-worshipping workplaces. Bullies terrorize with impunity. Half of all bullies are women. Women bullies target women 84% of the time; men bullies target women 69% of the time, making women the majority of targets in the workplace. The vast majority of bullies (81%) are bosses, some are co-workers and a few bully up the ladder. (according to CAWB's latest research.)

    Targethood hinges on two characteristics: an desire to cooperate and a non-confrontative interpersonal style. Bullying poses a serious health hazard to Targets by compromising their psychological and physical health, disassembling their social network and risking economic devastation through the loss of their jobs because "employment at will" encourages the bully's whimsical misuse of power. Targets who are most surprised by the baseless crueltly inflicted on them suffer the most severe effects (PTSD) and take the longest time to heal afterwards. Silent, frozen co-workers worsen the problem often by choosing to cut off support, to tacitly or directly join the bully's personal vendetta against the Target. Eventually, the workplace is paralyzed by fear, incapable of productive work, and susceptible to costly downtime with an unhealthy workforce and an increased liability for destructive employment practices. (See Bullying Studies to understand this.)

    Several external institutions--disability benefits & workers' comp systems, the courts, health and mental health practitioners unaware of Work Trauma--then cooperate with the bullying employer in an economic and psychological assault against the victimized employee-Target. Unlike cases involving violations of federally protected Civil Rights, bullied individuals in the U.S. today have few, mostly unsuccessful, avenues for legal redress. The Campaign will play a central role in the years to come to expand the legal options for Targets of "status-blind" hostile workplaces. (Read about proposed legislation.)

    Workplace Bullying is more similar to the Holocaust and Domestic Violence than to schoolyard, childhood bullying. Read about lessons from the Danes and the Holocaust and the similarities between Domestic Violence and Workplace Bullying

    Learn lots about bullies and who they torment

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    The Drs. Namie at
    The Campaign Against Workplace Bullying
    PO Box 29915
    Bellingham, WA 98228 USA
    360-656-6630