Woman-on-woman bullying on the rise
November 16, 2009 by Jim GiulianoPosted in: Behavior, Communication, In this week's e-newsletter, Latest News & Views, Management
When it comes to workplace bullying, women are no different and no worse than men, except in one respect: Women more often target other women.
According to one study cited in the Harvard Business Review, men tend to be equal opportunity bullies — targeting men and women about equally. Not so with women, who target other women in more than seven out of every 10 instances.
Some other findings:
- Instances of verbal abuse are more commonly committed by men (57%) than women (41%), but
- Women (54%) are more likely than men (41%) to engage in more subtle forms of bullying, such as sabotaging another’s work, and
- Women (50%) are more likely than men (45%) to abuse their authority over subordinates.
The study goes on to issue a warning to HR managers: Left unchecked, bullying becomes the norm as a business culture. That is, managers and subordinates begin to think of bullying as a standard way of doing business. And in such environments, productivity invariably goes down and turnover goes up.
Tags: bullying, Harvard Business Review, HR
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December 1st, 2009 at 10:29 am
I was bullied by my boss at one job and a subordinate at my current job. I couldn’t do anything about the first case, but I confronted the subordinate after months of verbal abuse. She quit!
September 1st, 2010 at 11:12 am
I’ve also been the victim of bullying by one female co-worker in particular, although lately she is controlling herself more, she still makes insulting comments but disguises them better. Aside from this, except for her poor grooming, she is a very good employee. She also has one manager she likes to bully because she knows he will take it. She has a loud voice by nature and is very excitable and sarcastic. It is hard to work with day after day.