The CEO of an international mental health organisation is calling for companies to promote an ‘if you see it, call it’ message to workers.
Australian depression support organization Beyondblue CEO Kate Carnell has proposed a new approach to taking action against bullying.
Carnell said people should follow the mantra of “If you see it, call it” to ensure bullies everywhere know their behaviour is unacceptable.
“It doesn’t matter if it’s in the workplace, at school or online, any form of bullying is unacceptable,” Carnell said. “Bullying is a major cause of stress which, if it continues for a long-time, can lead to depression and anxiety. It can do real damage to people’s lives which is why we all have a responsibility to speak up and stop it where we can,” she said.
Recent figures by UMR Research revealed a staggering one in three workers have been bullied at work, and over half of them are the victim of persistent office gossip or malicious rumours. Micro managers breathing down employee's necks are a major complaint, with 57% reporting that they have been unfairly micromanaged at some point in their careers. In addition, ‘stolen thunder’, being blamed for other worker's mistakes’, ‘verbal abuse’ and ‘unjustified criticism’ were the main complaints of Australian workers.
In this study, co-workers were found to be the most common culprits, responsible for some 53% of bullying cases, followed by managers at 47%, supervisors at 36% and business owners at 16%.
