Workplace bullying isn’t illegal in the United States. However, several advocacy groups have been working to put a law in place. Some individual states have considered laws to protect their employees. 
Just because there isn’t a law against the behavior doesn’t mean that it doesn’t do tremendous harm to our employees and organizations.

Workplace bullying damages an organization’s productivity, profits, and reputation. The infographic below shows that 80% of bullying targets lost productive time dealing with or avoiding the bully. 50% of targets took more time away from work after being targeted. The time away consisted of both sick time and vacation time.

TURNOVER COSTS
Direct turnover costs have been measured concerning bullying and other toxic behaviors. Each year, unmanaged behavior costs US employers BILLIONS of dollars to rehire and retrain new employees to replace the employees who abandoned the toxic environment. Indirect costs are harder to measure (i.e., downtime, stress on existing employees, etc.) but impact an organization's productivity and profits. According to research by the Workplace Bullying Institute, bullies tend to target your most professional and experienced employees. These are the very employees you don’t want to lose.

HEALTHCARE COSTS
Healthcare costs also need to be considered. The Workplace Bullying Institute found that 71% of targets seek out a medical professional for work-related symptoms while being targeted. 63% of targets sought care from a mental health practitioner for work-related symptoms during or after being targeted. These additional healthcare costs add up for the organization and employees  – especially if your organization is self-insured. The expenses are also entirely preventable by dealing with the behavior at its source – the bully.


REPUTATION
In December of 2021, the CEO of Better.com, Vishal Garg, laid off 900 employees via Zoom. After the news broke, employees who were let go began to speak publicly about the internal culture of Better.com. Some of them spoke specifically about the bullying behavior of the CEO.

A quick search for this story reveals videos from every news outlet, from CNN and CNBC to FORBES and the BBC. Because the CEO was of Indian descent, many Indian news outlets also picked up the story. Most of these stories share videos of the moment the CEO announced the layoffs and the allegations of intimidation and disparaging comments made by the CEO. In the most quoted insult, the CEO referred to employees as “dumb dolphins.”

This incident led to the CEO apologizing and being asked to step down. The company also had to delay going public via SPAC (Special Purpose Acquisitions Company). This publicity seriously tarnished the reputation of Better.com.

This isn’t an isolated incident. Reports of Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes and former COO Sunny Balwani’s abusive behavior towards employees was a central part of the Theranos story. Elon Musk’s behavior after the acquisition of Twitter also made headlines.

 
WORKPLACE DESIRABILITY
In the 2024 Workplace Bullying Institute Survey, researchers asked respondents to rate the importance of factors that create a desirable workplace. Having "Good Non-toxic bosses" topped the list with more than 76% of respondents indicating that this factor was "Very Important" to them in terms of an employer they would want to work for.

"Caring about workers' health and safety" and "Competitive Salary" followed with 75% (tie) of respondents stating that they were "Very Important" to them in an employer. "Benefits (health, dental, vacation)" followed closely behind with 73%. View the full list in the chart below.

WBI 2024 National Survey Question: Please rate the importance of each factor that would make an employer desirable.
Employer Factor	% of Respondents answering "Very Important" in a desirable workplace
Good, non-toxic bosses	76%
Caring about workers' health and safety	75%
Competitive Salary	75%
Benefits (health, dental, vacation)	74%
Respect from coworkers and managers	73%
Ethical practices and honest leaders	72%
Time available to live fully outside work	70%
Responsive to workers' complaints, no retaliation	67%
Paid sick leave	66%
Meaningful work, doing important things	63%
Organization's reputation or profitability/sustainability	50%

IMPACTS ON EMPLOYEES
As mentioned above, a majority of targets seek out medical care due to work-related health or mental health issues while they are being targeted. Specifically, employees cite the following issues most often due to being targeted.

Physical Health

• Sleep disruption (hard to fall asleep)
• Loss of concentration/memory
• Heart palpitations
• Insomnia
• High blood pressure

Mental Health

• Feeling stress due to the anticipation of the next negative event
• Anxiety at work
• Mood swings
• States of agitation or anger
• Pervasive sadness

In addition to health issues, the Workplace Bullying Institute found that 62% of targeted employees eventually lose/leave their jobs. 25% of targeted employees leave their jobs for a job that pays less to get away from the abuse. Their financial stability is jeopardized due to someone else’s actions in the workplace.

PRODUCTIVITY	TURNOVER COSTS
HEALTHCARE COSTS	REPUTATION

In the next lesson, Intro to Workplace Bullying, you will learn to recognize bullying and understand the bully's goal.