According to a year-long series of surveys conducted by a researcher at Malmö University, employees who have previously experienced rude behavior are more susceptible to bullying in the workplace.

“The results show how important it is to act immediately when you see disrespectful behavior in the workplace,” the author explains.

They collaborated with the Swedish trade union for engineers to conduct a series of surveys. Over the course of a year, three questionnaires were sent to 5,000 randomly selected workers from the trade union, each containing the same set of questions.

Incivility at work

These questions focused on the extent to which the respondents experienced incivility or bullying in the workplace and how it impacted their well-being. In total, 1,005 people responded to one or more of the questionnaires.

“We specifically looked at those who we could see answered at least two of the questionnaires, and in this way we could follow the development over these twelve months,” the author explains.

The research showed that rude behavior can take the form of disparaging or sarcastic comments, exclusion from events, or other forms of disrespectful treatment. Bullying, on the other hand, is a repeated pattern of negative actions that the victim finds difficult to defend against. The study finds that not only can bullying lead to poorer well-being, but incivility alone can have the same effect.

The results indicate that those who have previously experienced rude behavior at work face a higher risk of being bullied over time. The study also suggests that those who have witnessed rude behavior are more likely to witness bullying in the future. Out of the participants in the study, about 73% reported being treated rudely in the past month, and about 10% claimed to have been bullied.

“The major contribution of our study is that we can see that there is a clear connection between rudeness and bullying over time. The risk was clearly elevated over the entire time span in the study. If you don’t act in time, work-related conflicts can develop into bullying in the worst case,” the author concludes.

“Early interventions are necessary. Rude behaviors can easily be normalized and spread in a workplace until someone is put at a disadvantage.”