2021 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey

The National Study

Results of the 2024 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey

2021 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey

The 5th WBI nationally representative study: 2021, 2017, 2014, 2010, 2007

Written by WBI, copyright WBI. Survey conducted by Zogby Analytics.

Funding from Generous GoFundMe Contributors

Dr. Gary Namie reports key results (Video)

Results Summary

[Reference to Chapter #s shown in brackets. See below to read individual Chapters.]

Headline Findings

  • Prevalence: 30% have direct experience being bullied (up 57% from 2017) [1]
  • 43.2% is the bullying rate for those doing Remote Work, virtual work poses greater danger [3]
  • Targets have 67% chance of losing job they loved when targeted for bullying [10]
  • Public support for new law to go beyond nondiscrimination laws is strong, 90% [11]
  • Women bullies bully women at twice the rate they bully men [4]
  • Who is bullied? non-management employees, 52%, and managers, 40% [7]
  • Including witnesses, 49% of are affected (bullied + witnessed) – that’s 79.3 million workers! Worse for Remote workers [2]
  • Estimate is that 48.6 million Americans are bullied at work [2]
  • 48% of the public finally realizes that workplace culture creates toxicity and enables abuse [8]
  • 58% said that disrespectful politicians encouraged bullying & rule breaking [8]

More Key Findings

  • Bullying during remote work happens most in virtual meetings, not email [3]
  • Men are the majority of bullies, 67%, and the slight majority of targets, 51% [4]
  • The rate of bullying for Hispanics, 35%, is higher than for other races [5]
  • For first time, bullies admit their bullying – 4% nationally, representing 6.6 million [2]
  • Bullying remains primarily top-down. 65% of bullies are bosses [6]
  • Coworkers are source of bullying for targets, 21% [6]
  • Many causes of toxic workplaces. Top individual factor – bully’s personality, 24% [8]
  • Though blaming victims is common, only 15% blamed targets for being bullied [8]
  • When bullying is reported, American employers still react negatively, 60% [9]
  • Employers tend to encourage, defend, rationalize, discount & deny bullying [9]
  • The most frequently chosen “positive” employer reaction was zero-tolerance [9]
  • Most bullying is stopped when targets quit, get fired, are constructively discharged or transfer [10]
  • Accountability for bully is starting: punishment, termination, quitting (23%) compared to past [10]
  • National scientific poll of 1,215 Adult Americans, =/- 2.8 pt. margin of error [12]

Or select one of the Chapters below, each
with a single focus

Our workplaces simply are not working for people. It is unconscionable that nearly half of all American employees are miserable at work due to abusive bosses and toxic cultures.

Teresa A. Daniel

JD, PhD, and Dean/Professor of Human Resource Leadership at Sullivan University

The survey results show extraordinarily strong public support for a workplace anti-bullying law that protects all workers from targeted, health-impairing bullying on the job.

David C. Yamada,

J.D., Professor of Law at Suffolk University, author of anti-bullying legislation, The Healthy Workplace Bill

More Help for Bullied Targets