We've heard of the office bully, but the e-office bully? Believe it or not, yes - the e-office bully exists and is getting a little more rampant, in England, anyway. So says a survey by the British employment Website Reed.co.uk, which says the medium makes it only too easy to deliver the unpleasant messages.
The survey queried 3,400 people and found more senior workers than junior workers claiming to have been e-mail bullied - to the tune of one in four, according to Reed.co.uk, which says the ratio among lower-level workers was one in six.
"It seems that email bullying is getting worse, as economic pressures raise office temperatures across Britain," said Reed.co.uk director Dan Ferradino in a formal statement. "The real problem lies in the medium itself, however. It is just too easy to send an email while tempers are running high, ignoring the effect it might have. It's always worth taking time to reflect what you have written before pressing the send button."
What is e-mail bullying, exactly? Reed says it can be anything from a barrage of insults from a boss to a subordinate - the job site said one such worker finally quit rather than put up with it - to a woman harassed by another woman about her personal life, prompting the victim to report the e-mailer to the personnel department at last. Reed said three percent of the e-mail bullying victims they surveyed quit rather than take more abuse.
And how many would admit to being e-mail bullies themselves? Not many, according to Reed: four percent of those surveyed.
