About Individuals Targeted by Bullies

Respondents' Gender: Women: 80% Men: 20%

Age: average (the mean): 43

Education: 84% college educated

Work experience: mean = 21.4 years in the workplace, mean = 6.7 years for employer where bullying occurred.

Type of employer: 36% corporate; 31% government; 12% nonprofit orgs; 11% small business

What it could mean: Targets are predominantly 40-ish, educated and veteran employees, specifically people who have experience with the employer before the bullying interfered with their careers.

Duration of the bullying: mean = 23 months (men targets endured an average of 25.6 months and men bullies sustained 25.3 months of aggression)

What it could mean: Targets cannot be called thin-skinned. They stay for a long time working under conditions rational people would consider intolerable.

Gender of targets and who does the bullying. Most of the bullying is same-sex harassment (thus eligibility for claims of discrimination is elusive in most cases). Women targets are bullied 63% of the time by women bullies; men targets are bullied by men in 62% of cases.

How does the bullying end? The majority of WBI survey respondents (61%) reported that bullying was current and ongoing.

The survey respondents for whom the bullying has ended reported what made it stop:

• 37% of the Targets were fired or involuntarily terminated
• 33% of Targets quit (typically taking some form of constructive discharge)
• 17% of Targets transfer to another position with the same employer

What it could mean: Once targeted, bullied individuals face a 70% chance of losing their jobs.

• 4% of Bullies stopped bullying after punishment or sanctions
• 9% of Bullies were transferred or terminated

What it could mean: Bullying is done with impunity. Perpetrators face a low risk of being held accountable. Targeted individuals pay by losing their once-cherished positions.

From: Workplace Bullying Institute