Bully Buster's Campaign Aimed At Removing Hell From Young Working Women

Public sector union UNISON has teamed up with Company Magazine, the leading young women's monthly, to launch a 'Bully busters' campaign. A poll to mark the start of the campaign found 1-in-3 young working women had been bullied at work, with 66 per cent of those respondents who had been bullied in the last six months saying the problem was ongoing.

The most common bully is an older woman in a more senior professional position, the survey found. The majority of bullied women reported suffering from anger, mental stress, depression, lowered confidence and insomnia.

Dave Prentis, UNISON's general secretary, said: 'This shocking survey shows that the bullying and harassment of young women in the workplace is spiralling out of control. More women are working now than ever before, yet one in three young women are victimised and suffer in silence. Many people do not realise that a drip feed of bullying behaviour can be as devastating as a major incident.'

The union leader added: 'UNISON is committed to banning the bully, as it is important for young women to know that joining a union is crucial.'

Company editor, Victoria White, said: 'Company is proud to have teamed with UNISON to raise awareness of workplace bullying and to encourage young women to stand up for themselves and stop this kind of harassment going at work.'

Backing the campaign, Sarah Lewis, a 27-year-old management accountant at a hospital, said: 'My boss enjoyed having control and power over me. This included having to tell her when I was leaving the department on every occasion, including using the toilet.' She said as the result of this experience 'I decided to become a UNISON branch secretary to help others. The hospital has since changed its bullying and harassment policy to include better ways of dealing with bullying, like mediation.' Read the original article in Company magazine here

Source: TUC Risks

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