Perceived health and variety of negative actions in workplace bullying

Several studies demonstrated an association between workplace bullying and poor health by considering frequency and duration of bullying situations, with none focusing on the impact of the number of different negative behaviours. The more bullying behaviours are of different type, the less an individual may have effective coping resources, with a possible increase of the health impact. This study aims at evaluating whether the variety of workplace bullying behaviours has an impact on sickness absence and perceived health status. A self-reported questionnaire was administered to 9229 workers employed in different companies in Lombardy (Northern Italy), with the support of the Italian trade-unions. The questionnaire includes 38 different behaviours typically associated with workplace bullying. It also investigates workers’ health and life quality and reported number of sickness absence days in the previous 12 months. The sample was composed mainly of men (53.0%); 32.3% were aged ≥45 yrs; 28.1% were blue collars, 57.8% white-collars, 8.9% managers (5.2% missing). Mean days of sickness absence per year was 7.4 (range 0-365) and mean number of different negative bullying actions was 1.3 (0- 22). Results indicated that 7% of the sample resulted at risk for workplace bullying. As a whole, after adjustment for several confounders, each additional bullying behaviour corresponded to about a 40% increase in the likelihood of reporting poor health (OR 1.4 95%CI 1.34-1.44). and a 16% increase for reporting more than 24 days of sick-leave. (OR 1.16 95%CI 1.12-1.20) This study clearly indicates that, along with frequency and duration, also variety of bullying behaviours is relevant for workers’ health. Different negative behaviours strengthens the subjects awareness of suffering a bullying situation and might results in an increased health risk. More focused studies might be