Unfortunately, most people will meet a stalker in the workplace at some point. Unjustified criticisms, ostracism, personal insults and verbal or physical threats are just some of the tools in the stalker’s locker. Over time, the objective of harassment can have more and more difficulty defending this behavior.
Harassment undermines productive workplaces and can damage the reputation of both the stalker and the organization. Of course, it is even more harmful to the objectives of the stalker, which report physical and psychological health problems, loss of work and even symptoms of post -traumatic stress.
Since up to one in ten employees in the United Kingdom suffers harassment, this problem could affect more than three million workers throughout the country.
In a recent research study based on data from 2,469 employees for a period of four years, we examine whether the experiences of harassment were related to changes in the “five great” personality traits: openness, awareness, extroversion, kindness and neuroticism.
It is well known that harassment is bad for well -being, performance and mood. But why would we think that harassment could change central aspects of a person, including his personality?
Our predictions were mainly based on a theory of personality change. The central idea is that repeatedly experimenting thoughts, emotions and reactions that disagree with the normal features of a person can change them over time.
For example, extroverts are usually cheerful and sociable people looking for emotion. However, an extrovert exposed to harassment would probably begin to experience negative emotions regularly. They could retract socially and could learn that social isolation is an effective way to avoid harassment. As a result, its normal outgoing features could be reduced over time.
Our results showed that being harassed was associated with significant reductions in outgoing traits and consciousness (that is, being reliable and organized). The fall in consciousness could be due to the fact that the objective feels demotivated by the injustice of being harassed, or intimidation can even take the way to eliminate significant tasks of the colleague.
Being harassed also related to greater neuroticism, which is the tendency to experience negative emotional states such as anxiety, anger and depression.
We also found that the longest harassment periods were associated with the objective becoming less outgoing and more neurotic.
This suggests that, in addition to all other damages, harassment can also steal from people their joy, sociability, reliability and calm.
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Who do stalkers point to?
Our research also explored if personality traits were a risk factor to experience harassment. We discover that consciousness and extroversion can put workers at greater risk of attracting the attention of a stalker in the workplace.
A cautious interpretation of this could infer that conscientious employees are the objective of those who envy their highest performance levels (high poppy syndrome, where high -flying people are “cut” by a wrong sense of egalitarianism). However, it is less clear why extroverts could be attacked.
Interestingly, when we observed the people who experienced him sustained for longer periods of time, we discovered that other personality traits were risk factors. Neuroticism, opening (which covers features of imagination, curiosity and novelty) and discomfort were related to experiencing harassment for a longer time.
This indicates that emotional, unconventional and arguing people tend to experience the greatest amount of harassment. However, it is not yet completely understood if it is personality that attracts harassment or if, in fact, harassment is promoting personality change.
There are few other investigations on personality types more likely to be attacked by stalkers. And we still do not know if the personality changes they suffer are likely to be permanent. However, we have concrete knowledge about the factors that are more useful to limit the impact of harassment on victims.
Working in a support environment where well -being is prioritized and where there are processes to allow resolution can really help those who suffer harassment. Similarly, receiving support from colleagues, friends and family can limit harmful effects.
Ultimately, harassment is a growing process that causes lasting damage. The best medicine is to finish the experience as soon as possible, or better, to prevent it completely.
*Samuel Farley is a Professor of Labor Psychology at the University of Sheffield, David Hughes is a professor of organizational psychology at Manchester and Karen Niven is a professor of organizational psychology at the University of Sheffield.
This article was originally published in The Conversation/Reuters
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