Fræðigrein

Læknablaðið 2004; 90: 847-51

Introduction: The study assessed the association between well-being, work-environment and employees? health among the personnel in savings- and other banks? branches with reference to whether they had been exposed to bullying at work.

Methods: A questionnaire based on the General Nordic Questionnaire for Psychological and Social Factors at Work was sent to all employees (N=1847) in the spring of 2002. The data was analyzed using the SPSS statistical package.

Results: The response rate was 80% with 1475 employees returning the questionnaire. Women were 86% (n=1192) of the responders. About 15% of the em­ployees (n=209) had experienced some form of harassment in connection with work. The majority of those had experienced bullying (8% (n=110)). The victims of bullying were more likely to have poor psychosocial work-en­vironment and were less likely to have experienced a positive relationship with supervisors and other staff. There was only minimal association between bullying and seeking medical attention for a selected number of medical conditions. The victims of bullying were more likely to have experienced significant stress recently (p=0.025), to be mentally exhausted at the end of the workday (p=0.013), to have significant sleep difficulties (p=0.001), and poor mental health (p<0.0001), and to be dissatisfied in their job (p<0.0001).

Conclusion: In the light of the association between work organization and bullying it is of importance that supervisors and employers are well versified in communication skills as pertains to staff relations and recognizing psychosocial risk factors in the employees? work environment. As victims of bullying are more dissatisfied with their work than others, it is likely that if they become sick and link their illness to the workplace, that they will quit their job. In light of this it is of importance to study the experience of bullying among those receiving benefits due to long-term sickness absence or disability.