Results of the 2010 WBI U.S.
Workplace Bullying Survey

About the U.S. National Surveys

The Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) wrote the survey and commissioned Zogby International to collect data for the second representative study of all adult Americans on the topic of workplace bullying. WBI conducted the first national study in 2007.

The 2010 Survey

There were two 2010 surveys - one with several items and 4,210 survey respondents (MOE +/- 1.5 percentage points), and one single-item survey with 2,092 respondents (MOE +/- 2.2 percentage points). Each sample was representative of all American adults in August, 2010.

What is Workplace Bullying?

In Survey 1, Workplace Bullying was defined as "repeated, health harming abusive conduct committed by bosses and co-workers." In the single-question survey (Survey 2), Workplace Bullying was defined as "repeated mistreatment: sabotage by others that prevented work from getting done, verbal abuse, threatening conduct, intimidation, & humiliation" in order to make the direct comparison to the 2007 WBI-Zogby prevalence question.

Key Findings

• 35% of workers have experienced bullying firsthand (37% in 2007, given the MOE, essentially equivalent)
• 62% of bullies are men; 58% of targets are women
• Women bullies target women in 80% of cases
• Bullying is 4X more prevalent than illegal harassment (2007)
• The majority (68%) of bullying is same-gender harassment

Prevalence of Workplace Bullying

35% of the U.S. workforce (an est. 53.5 million Americans) report being bullied at work; an additional 15% witness it. Half of all Americans have directly experienced it. Simultaneously, 50% report neither experiencing nor witnessing bullying. Hence, a "silent epidemic."

Gender and Workplace Bullying

Both men and women bully, but the majority of bullying is same-gender harassment, which is mostly legal according to anti-discrimination laws and workplace policies. Women target women.

Public Support for the Healthy Workplace Bill

Survey 1 respondents were asked if they supported or opposed workplace bullying legislation to protect workers from "abusive conduct" as contained in the original HWB language. Support is 2.5 times the level of opposition.

Support and Race

The strongest support comes from groups which enjoy protected status under current civil rights laws. Support from African Americans (73%) and Hispanics (66%) shows that current laws are inadequate when workplace cruelity is the issue. In fact, in 2009 the NAACP endorsed HWB as a necessary law.

Political Party Affiliation and Support

Since 2003, the HWB has enjoyed bipartisan support in several state legislatures. Both Republicans and Democrats have been prime sponsors of the bill. In the 2010 WBI-Zogby survey, people identified themselves as members of the Democratic or Republican parties, or as Independents or not specified. Strongest support for the HWB came from Democrats (84%), Not Specified (60%), followed by Independents (55%) and half of Republicans. Thus, constituents of both parties want elected officials to address workplace bullying.