It has come to light that more than a quarter of UK employees suffer from bullying or discrimination at work whilst at the same time an ITV drama is set to come out on December 16th that explores “office bullying”.
Bupa, a healthcare provider has discovered through their Workplace Wellbeing Census that 28 per cent of the UK workforce experience bullying or discrimination at work.
The ITV drama ‘Sticks and Stones’ explores the “rat race and office bullying” of a company that operates in a Reading business park. Its screenwriter is Mark Bartlett.
Women experience more bullying and discrimination (34 per cent) than their male colleagues (22 per cent). Women are also four times more likely to suffer from workplace gender discrimination than men (13 per cent vs 3 per cent).
Nearly half (48 per cent) of employees feel they cannot speak to their manager about their wellbeing without fear of being judged and so 50 per cent choose to handle issues on their own. As well as 43 per cent not having support to wellbeing support services at work.
Those who are able to speak to managers about wellbeing issues seem to be related to happiness as 51 per cent of employees said being able to talk to their managers resulted in a positive experience.
The research found that 23 per cent of UK employees are struggling with poor wellbeing with 72 per cent saying workplace and mental health issues as key factors.
David Hynam, CEO of Bupa Global & UK, said:
Creating a positive working environment where employees are comfortable to bring their whole self to work, and being able to speak up if they experience any problems, is absolutely key to enabling your people to thrive in the workplace.
I believe it’s particularly important for businesses to have a clear stance on inclusion. Having a code of conduct that clearly sets out that all colleagues are treated equally, regardless of gender, age, race, sexual orientation or religion is one way to help everyone feel comfortable within the business and that discrimination and bullying has absolutely no place within the organisation.
These figures are taken from a YouGov poll which had a sample size of 4,007 UK employees.
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.
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