2021 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey Old

2021 WBI U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey

The Fifth Representative WBI National Study
2021, 2017, 2014, 2010, 2007

Funding from Generous GoFundMe Contributors
Zogby Analytics, Pollster

Read the Complete 2021 Report

The comparison gives us an estimate of the effect of his (former President Trump’s) bellicose, bullying presidency on society and the American workplace. Misconduct at the top had consequences.

Gary Namie, PhD, WBI Director and Social Psychologist

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 introduced in 31 states, the Healthy Workplace Bill

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]