Aussie bosses turn blind eye to cyber bullying

Some managers even become involved

Almost half of victims of cyber bullying attacks in the workplace have not been taken seriously by their employers when seeking support and assistance, according to a survey of 1782 employees by Australia's leading online career network, LinkMe.com.au.

Half of all cyber bullying is carried out by colleagues, closely followed by 41 per cent attributed directly to bosses. This may well be why only 46 per cent of victims reported incidents of bullying.

"This is an extremely worrying trend," said Campbell Sallabank, CEO of LinkMe.com.au. "The increase in incidents of bullying is partly because of the changes technological development have brought to society at large and at work," Sallabank added.

"People today are more stressed and work is more pressured, leaving less time for the development of the healthy professional relationships that reduce both bullying and the perception of bullying," said Sallabank. "A huge 79.4 per cent of employees said that they think it is easier for workplace bullying to occur in cyber space than face-to-face".

"With only half (49.5 per cent) of reported incidents being taken seriously, the modern workplace is facing a huge problem that will only serve to worsen employers' ability to retain staff and maintain a healthy, happy, workforce if it is not addressed."

When let down by their employers, some employees have attempted to resolve the problem by confronting the perpetrators face-to-face, but 52.9 per cent of employees are simply left to struggle in an extremely distressing situation with no possibility of resolution whatsoever.

Len Rust is publisher of

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