Many employees still feel they are unable to report cases of workplace harassment, despite growing awareness of the issue, new research shows.
A survey of more than 1,000 UK workers by Mercer Human Resource Consulting, shows that 40% do not feel free to report harassment at work, while more than a third say they are unable to complain about dishonest or unethical behaviour.
The research also highlights that the reluctance to report misconduct is not confined to workers lower down the organisational hierarchy. In fact, fewer than 62% of middle managers feel comfortable about reporting cases of harassment inflicted by senior managers.
“It is worrying that such a high proportion of employees feel they cannot speak up about bullying and other unethical behaviour at work,” said Paul Sanchez, head of communication consulting at Mercer.
“When extrapolated to the whole of the UK workforce, we could be looking at several million individuals who are too intimidated to report management misconduct.”
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