Men more likely to quit work due to bullying: study

London: Men who face bullying at the workplace are twice more likely to leave their jobs for a period of time, a new study has found. On the other hand, bullying in women doubles sickness absence, leads to an increased use of antidepressants and affects women's health negatively and for a long time.

Researchers from Aarhus University and the University of Copenhagen in Denmark showed that men are just as exposed to work or personal-related bullying as women, but are actually slightly more exposed to physical intimidation than women. In the study, seven per cent of the respondents reported that they are being subjected to bullying.

Of these, 43 per cent are men. A total of 3182 people in both public and private organisations have participated. "The million-dollar question is why men primarily react by leaving the workplace, while women react to bullying by taking prolonged sick leaves. If anything, this illustrates that men and women handle bullying differently," said Tine Mundbjerg Eriksen, an assistant professor at the Aarhus University.

It was a surprise to learn that bullying does not seem to increase men's sickness absence, according to Eriksen. "In fact, it seems that men who are bullied are more likely than women to go to work even though they're actually sick," she said. "At the same time, it appears that bullying affects men's salary level negatively, which indicates that the bullying hampers their opportunities for pay increases and promotions," Eriksen said.

"One way of bullying is that your colleagues or your boss impede your ability to do your job properly, make changes to your work or hand the fun and important tasks to others," she added. Previous studies have shown that bullying causes the same symptoms as post-traumatic stress disorder and more long-term
sickness than violence, threats and sexual harassment. The study was published in the journal of Labour Economics.