A new Acas study has revealed that workplace bullying is growing in Britain and many people are too afraid to speak up about it. Calls to the Acas helpline on bullying revealed the following:

• Barriers to people making complaints such as the fear that trying to do something about unwanted behaviour might make the situation worse.
• Ill-treatment from other staff often built up to the point where people dreaded going to work, their family and home life had been affected and many took leave to escape the workplace.
• Inexperienced employers can feel they lack the skills to go through complex grievance and disciplinary procedures that bullying allegations may involve.
• Managers alerted to bullying allegations can favour simply moving staff around rather than investigating and dealing with underlying behaviours.

The Acas paper ‘Seeking better solutions: tackling bullying and ill-treatment in Britain’s workplaces’ looks at the latest research on workplace bullying, analyses calls to the Acas helpline from employers and employees and makes recommendations around how bullying can be tackled more effectively in the workplace. 

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