Study: Workplace bullying on the rise

A new CareerBuilder survey found that the number of workers encountering bullies at the office is increasing. Some 35 percent of workers said they have felt bullied at work, up from 27 percent last year.

Worse yet, 16 percent of these workers say they suffered health-related problems as a result of bullying, and another 17 percent said the bullying got so bad that they decided to quit their jobs.

The CareerBuilder survey also found that nearly half of workers don’t confront their bullies, and the majority of bullying incidents on the job go unreported. The survey was conducted online by Harris Interactive from May 14 to June 4, 2012, and included more than 3,800 workers nationwide.

Who are the bullies?

Workers who felt bullied said the behavior came from the following people:

In addition, more than half (54 percent) said they were bullied by someone older than they were, while 29 percent said the bully was younger. Note: respondents could name more than one type of bully, so the totals add up to more than 100 percent.

Weapons of a workplace bully