30% of Office Workers Experience Workplace Bullying... 15% Even Consider Extreme Measures

Citizen Group Workplace Power Harassment 119 Survey
"More Serious Among Youth, Non-Regular Workers, and Public Institutions"

A survey revealed that 3 out of 10 office workers have experienced workplace harassment within the past year. In particular, harassment was found to occur relatively more frequently among non-regular workers, public institutions, and small-sized companies.

On the 7th, the civic group Workplace Bullying 119 announced the results of a survey conducted by the public opinion research firm Global Research from February 14 to 23. The survey targeted 1,000 workers aged 19 and older nationwide. According to the results, 305 respondents, or 30.5% of the total, reported experiencing workplace harassment within the past year. Among them, 15.6% said they had contemplated extreme measures because of it.

The rate of workplace harassment experience was similar to the group survey result from the first quarter of last year (30.1%), but the percentage of those who considered extreme measures increased. In the first quarter of last year, 10.6% of respondents said they had contemplated extreme measures, which rose by 5 percentage points over the year. Those who considered extreme measures were relatively more common among people in their 20s (22.4%) and 30s (26.0%), and the rate was higher among non-regular workers (19.2%) than regular workers (13.3%).

Among those who experienced workplace harassment, 46.6% described the harassment as 'serious.' Especially, a high proportion of respondents in their 20s (61.2%), non-regular workers (56.8%), employees of central and local public institutions (61.1%), and workers at private companies with 5 to 29 employees (55.8%) reported that the harassment was serious. The most common types of harassment they experienced were insults and defamation (17.5%), followed by unfair orders (17.3%), coercion outside of work duties (16.5%), and physical or verbal abuse (15.5%).

Additionally, the longer the working hours, the higher the proportion of workers who reported experiencing harassment. Among respondents who worked more than 52 hours per week, 41.3% reported workplace harassment. These workers showed higher experience rates in most types of harassment, including coercion outside of work duties, compared to those working 52 hours or less per week. In particular, 29.4% experienced unfair orders, which is 12.1 percentage points higher than the average. However, more than half of those who experienced harassment did not take active measures against it. Among respondents who experienced harassment, 57.7% said they 'endured it or pretended not to know,' with 47.1% citing 'because they felt the situation would not improve even if they responded' as the reason. Also, 50% of those who needed medical treatment or counseling did not receive it.

Yoon Ji-young, a lawyer and representative of Workplace Bullying 119, said, "Although workplace harassment has steadily decreased since the enactment of the Workplace Harassment Prohibition Act, vulnerable workers in unstable employment and poor working conditions find it difficult to feel the law's effects." She added, "It is necessary to expand the scope of the law's application, mandate education completion, enforce effective investigation and action obligations, and implement comprehensive measures to improve the working conditions of workers in small businesses and non-regular workers."