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Labour market affiliation among non-bullied colleagues at work units with reported bullying

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Abstract

Aim

This study investigates if non-bullied employees in Work units (WUs) where bullying occur, are more prone to leave the WUs than employees in WUs with no bullying, and if the prevalence of workplace bullying had an impact on leaving the WUs. Leaving the workplace was defined by unemployment or change of workplace at follow-up.

Methods

We had data from 8326 Danish public health invited employees from 302 WUs. Of these 3036 responded to a questionnaire on working conditions and health in 2007. WUs were classified into three categories of WUs: (1) no bullying (0% bullied), (2) moderate prevalence of bullying (< 10% bullied), and (3) high prevalence of bullying (≥ 10% bullied). Bullied respondents were used to classify the WUs and excluded in the analyses.

Results

We found odds ratios (ORs) for unemployment 1 year later of 1.27 [95% CI 0.69–2.37] in WUs with moderate prevalence of bullying and 1.38 [95% CI 0.85–2.23] among employed in WUs with high prevalence of bullying, adjusted for size of WUs, age, sex, and job category. For turnover 1 year later the ORs were 1.27 [95% CI 0.78–2.15] and 1.46 [95% CI 0.99–2.15] in WUs with moderate and high prevalence of bullying, respectively.

Conclusion

We did not find that non-bullied employees leave the WUs with moderate and high prevalence of bullying more than employees in WUs with no bullying behaviour 1 year later. Leaving the workplace tended to be higher among employees in WUs with high prevalence of bullying compared to no and moderate bullying.

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Acknowledgements

The study was funded by The Danish Working Environment Research Fund (Grant Number 20130023294) and The Danish Council for Independent Research (Grant Number 1319-00092).

Funding

The funding organs played no role in the collection of data, formulation of study hypothesis, analyses, or interpretation of findings.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Public Health, University of Copenhagen, Øster Farimagsgade 5, 1014, Copenhagen K, Denmark

    Åse Marie Hansen, Thomas Clausen & Anne Helene Garde

  2. The National Research Centre for the Working Environment, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Åse Marie Hansen, Thomas Clausen & Anne Helene Garde

  3. Psychiatry Center Sct. Hans, Capital Region, Roskilde, Denmark

    Matias Brødsgaard Grynderup

  4. Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Matias Brødsgaard Grynderup & Annie Hogh

  5. Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, Frederiksberg and Bispebjerg Hospital, Copenhagen, Denmark

    Jens Peter Bonde

  6. Research Unit of Clinical Epidemiology, Institute of Clinical Research, University of Southern Denmark, Odense, Denmark

    Linda Kaerlev

  7. Center for Clinical Epidemiology, Odense University Hospital, Odense, Denmark

    Linda Kaerlev

  8. Department of Occupational Medicine, Danish Ramazzini Centre, Aarhus University Hospital, Aarhus N, Denmark

    Henrik A. Kolstad

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  1. Åse Marie Hansen
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Correspondence to Åse Marie Hansen.

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Hansen, Å.M., Grynderup, M.B., Clausen, T. et al. Labour market affiliation among non-bullied colleagues at work units with reported bullying. Int Arch Occup Environ Health 94, 547–556 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00420-020-01604-8

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