This may be overlooked, but workplace bullying, like offensive comments, persistent work criticism and withholding resources, is an extremely powerful negative factor on work productivity. Much more than sexual harassment, as found by a new research presented at the Seventh International Conference on Work, Stress and Health.

"As sexual harassment becomes less acceptable in society, organizations may be more attuned to helping victims, who may therefore find it easier to cope. In contrast, non-violent forms of workplace aggression such as incivility and bullying are not illegal, leaving victims to fend for themselves," said lead author Dr. M. Sandy Hershcovis, of the University of Manitoba.

The Canadian team made a meta-analysis of 110 researches published over 21 years that compared the impact of sexual harassment and workplace aggression on work, job satisfaction, workers' mental and physical health. Workplace aggression varied from rude verbal and non-verbal behaviors to bullying (persistent criticism of the employees' work; yelling; spreading of gossip or lies; ignoring or excluding workers; and expressing depreciative thoughts about workers' habits, attitudes or private life) and interpersonal conflict (hostility and verbal aggression).

Aggression and sexual harassment negatively impact the work, but bullying appeared to have much more serious effects. Those experiencing work aggression were more likely to quit their jobs, have higher stress, anger and anxiety levels, have less job satisfaction and have worse relations with their managers compared to employees experiencing sexual harassment. Both types of mistreatment equally impacted relations with co-workers and work productivity.

"Bullying is often more subtle, and may include behaviors that do not appear obvious to others. For instance, how does an employee report to their boss that they have been excluded from lunch? Or that they are being ignored by a coworker? The insidious nature of these behaviors makes them difficult to deal with and sanction," said Hershcovis.

The meta-analysis was made on 128 samples. 46 analyzed victims of sexual harassment, 86 of workplace aggression and six of both. Samples varied from 1,491 to 53,470 people, and subjects were aged 18 to 65.

"The work aggression samples included both men and women. The sexual harassment samples examined primarily women because. Past research has shown that men interpret and respond differently to the behaviors that women perceive as sexual harassment," said Hershcovis.