Adult Bullying in the Workplace and the Medical Field: A Narrative Review

Studying and understanding adult bullying is integral to recognizing, acknowledging, and addressing attitudes and behaviours that may be deemed acceptable in a particular context but have debilitating consequences for individuals and organizations. Much of the research in this field has focused on the impact of bullying on the vulnerable populations: children and adolescents, and there is an overall scarcity in understanding the consequences of adult bullying. The literature supports the existence of characteristic differences between targets and perpetrators as the perpetrators lack self-awareness and empathy skills, while the targets are typically avoidant and submissive. In the workplace, perpetrators and targets relationship often involves a form of power imbalance, with perpetrators holding higher positions, and targets typically being low-status workers. Research has shown that up to 30 percent of American workers have been bullied in the workplace, including 11.3 percent healthcare workers. More than 75 percent of Canadian medical residents have reported being bullied, and 83 percent of medical students have experienced at least one incident of bullying or mistreatment. Such bullying incidents have a significant biopsychosocial burden on the victims and can negatively compromise one’s mental, physical, and social health, and create a pernicious work environment. Some of the conditions that have been associated with adult bullying include mood and anxiety disorders, suicidal ideation, heart and gastric diseases, and decreased job performance. In the medical field, all of such consequences could translate to a direct impact on patient care. Therefore, discussing and addressing adult bullying becomes a necessity.