Workplace Bullying Institute



How Employers Pay for Bullying


Tangible Costs

  • Turnover costs: downtime (lost efficiency); recruitment; hiring bonuses; time to proficiency of replacement (reduced efficiency)

  • Litigation costs: attorney fees; settlement costs; jury awards; appeal costs

  • Stress-related payments for Workers' Comp awards and Disability Benefits

  • Accidents increase as staff are more fatigued (from sleep loss from bullyying-induced stress and anxiety)

  • Talent Flight of best and brightest as they seek non-hostile workplaces -- dummies and political operatives are all that remain -- lost capacity to innovate

    Intangible Costs

  • On-the-street smeared reputation as a place that promotes cutthroat cruelty

  • Reputation as a factory that grinds up its people for short-run productivity

  • Bad public relations from high-profile litigation, naming employer as supporting offensive harassers

  • Sabotage by fearful employees who know no alternatives when management fails to purge or punish the tyrant

  • Staff resistance to initiatives launched by management that can't be trusted to look after employees' interests

    It makes no sense to incur these preventable costs in this competitive market for good employees!! By not stopping the bullying, employers are missing an excellent recruitment and retention edge.

    Employment Practices Liability

    If it didn't happen, they wouldn't carry insurance against the risk!

    Employers are turning to 'employment practices liability' insurance to protect against bullying-type claims (harassment, wrongful termination, etc.) for which companies pay $5,000 to $100,000 annual premiums with deductibles of $10,000 to $25,000. The median compensatory award in wrongful termination cases topped $200,000 in 1995, up 45% from the year before.

    Toxic practices completely out of control lead to violence at work, the leading killer of working women. They cost employers about $4.2 billion annually. In 1992, 750 lives were lost.

    Relationships among employees and between management & staff are strained more than ever because of time and productivity pressures. Pressure, to some, justifies the mistreatment of others. When mistreatment goes unchallenged, even passive individuals are capable of explosive rage that can result in headline episodes of workplace violence.

    Workplace bullying includes all types of interpersonal harassment and discrimination. Some are blatantly illegal, most are not. It crosses all levels of organizations, from the top down and from the bottom up. Unchallenged bullynig poisons the workplace, undermines productivity and contributes to a skyrocketing exposure to risk.

    The anguish of bullied employees forces them to pay with their health--both psychological and physical--that affects them, their co-workers and their families. It undermines a loyal employee's commitment to the organization, while eroding personal well-being.

    Bullying is America's Silent Epidemic sapping productivity.

    Employers and Insurers pay an estimated $250 billion yearly for:

  • Direct employee health care costs
  • Turnover from employee flight & Re-training costs
  • Accidents related to stress-induced fatigue
  • Litigation: counsel/settlements/jury awards, and
  • Resistance to top-down change initiatives


    • The economic rationale is compelling. But bullying is also inhumane; it is cruel. Fortunately, it is preventable and can be stopped, if present. See the employer solution.




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