Workplace Bullying Linked to Insomnia

Study Says 11% of Women, 9% of Men Surveyed are Bullied at Work

(WebMD)  Being bullied at work may make you toss and turn all night.

Researchers have found that people who are intimidated, insulted, or otherwise harassed on the job are more likely to have sleep disturbances than are other workers. Their findings appear in the Sept.1 issue of the journal Sleep.

Workplace bullying may be a common occurrence, according to the new study, which involved more than 7,600 middle-aged workers in southeast France. The study participants answered questionnaires regarding their work environment and ability to fall asleep and return to sleep after early awakenings.

In the study, 11% of women and 9% of men reported being exposed to bullying at work at least once a week for at least six months of the previous year. Workplace bullying was defined as "hostile behavior on the part of one or more persons in the work environment that aim continually and repeatedly to offend, oppress, maltreat, or to exclude or isolate over a long period of time."

The researchers found that women exposed to bullying on the job every day or nearly every day were about twice as likely as their peers to have sleeping difficulties. Men who had to deal with such hostile behavior now or in the past had more than two times the sleep disturbances as men who had not.

The more often someone was bullied on the job, the more likely they were to have sleeping difficulties. The results took into consideration other factors that can affect sleep, such as age, occupation, work hours, and symptoms of depression.

Sleep Also Eludes Observers
The sleep woes also affected those who saw someone else being bullied. Slightly more than a third of workers said they witnessed bullying on the job in the previous 12 months. Among the findings:

• Men who observed workplace bullying had an estimated 60% higher chance of having sleep disturbances.
• The odds for disturbed sleep were 20% higher in women who saw someone else being bullied.

The chances for sleep problems increased more if the workers both saw and experienced bullying. The study authors say their findings highlight the need for greater efforts to prevent bullying in the workplace.

"Workplace bullying may be considered as one of the leading job stressors and would be a major cause of suicide and other health-related issues," Isabelle Niedhammer, PhD, epidemiologist and researcher at the UCD School of Public Health & Population Science at the University College Dublin in Ireland, says in a statement. "Our study underlines the need to better understand and prevent occupational risk factors, such as bullying, for sleep disorders."

Adjustment insomnia is the medical term for sleep difficulties that result from an identifiable stressor, such as workplace bullying. According to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, symptoms may also involve anxiety, worry, depression, muscle tension, and headaches. Adjustment insomnia usually goes away within three months, but it may linger if the person remains in the stressful environment or can’t otherwise adapt to the situation.

[workengagement]

Bullying excludes people from the social community at work. This is humiliating in itself, which is bad enough. It goes further by casting doubt on hopes for future security, fulfillment, or advancement at work.

Greater respect and civility at work is definitely possible. It is not something that management can decree, but requires a concerted effort by a community.

Our approach, CREW, is quite effective. The research results are compelling.

Michael
www.workengagement.com/crew

[formrusmcsgt]

I wonder how much accumulated debt has to do with people staying and tolerating that which no one should.

If they're not in debt and have savings like they should, why in the world would anyone in their right mind put up with such abuse?

I think their debt keeps most of them in chains.....

[Sybll]

I have been bullied by my boss to the point where I was left shaking and in tears more than once. Each time it happens, I have tried to excuse the incident saying he was having a bad day, he is intelligent, has a college education, he is just stressed, or maybe he is taking out his anger on me for something someone else did or said - whatever, each time it has happened it has escalated. I know now that this is not going to stop, just as a spousal abuser does not stop his abuse. Apart from resigning, which is not an option at this point, I do not know what to do - and yes, each time his attacks have been unprovoked, with him totally misunderstanding a situation and not caring to hear any explanation.

[formrusmcsgt]

And why would resigning not be an option? Find another position and tell him to shove his up his ass.

Your choosing to stay and suffer is as bent as his need to punish.

[at2tud]

Let me tell you, work place bulling happens in the military everyday, at home station and at deployed locations it's even worse. I get about 3 hrs of sleep at night and can never relax since I joined my unit. I work harder @ trying to fit in than @ doing my j-o-b.

[jasperlily]

People can only do to you what you allow them to do. Whether or not you're getting enough sleep. I'm so sick and tired of "experts" and the load o' pap they dish out. Nice work if you can get it.

[ramos1129]

There is a fancy phase for it called Management by Intimidation. I have 42 employees, if I ever caught a manager engaging in this, he/she would be terminated on the spot.

[SkirtLifter]

No surprise.
If A=B AND B=C THEN A=C.
Stress = insomnia. Work place bullies = stress. insomnia = Work place bullies.

[John_Merritt]

Very good skirt (or is it scottish kilt). I like your thinking. Let's go a few more steps further. Bad genes = bullies. Bad home life = bullies. Bad relationships = bullies. Bad tempermant = bullies. So what do we have?

Bad genes + homelife + relationships + temperment = Charles Manson (or sociopath of your choice). Bullies are found everywhere and it usually starts young and many have suffered rejection and have difficulty coping, reading, writing, socializing, and generally flat out not fitting in.

What is interesting is the very ones who are causing stress and insomnia for others usually have insomnia, bad dreams and the very things they create. I guess that falls under the Karma rule: What goes around usually comes around.

Morale of the story when you see one coming walk the other way. Don't encourage their behavior and you usually can sidestep their own self styled perversion. Kids are different. When you see them get bullied you stand up for them. You don't have to be their friend but you do have look out for those deemed insubordinate or inferior in the eyes of a bully.

By the way, skirt lifter in what sense? Flasher or ..........? I see now why more women where pant suits and jeans.

[culturechang]

I consider these companies that promoate United Way and Red Cross to get thier employees to donate to be a practice of bullying and extortion that should be illegal.