By David Simms, Senior Contributor
The Global Institute for Cyber Safety and Standards
Recent reports describe the Y-generation, specifically the 20 or
30 somethings, as being less tolerant of online bullying than other generations.
Some say this can be attributed to younger people having grown up with more
anti-bullying campaigns in school. Having more information on what constitutes
bullying theoretically makes them more vocal against it and less likely to put
up with it.
Despite this however, internet harassment, especially
in the workplace, does not appear to be slowing down.
Something of particular
interest is the distinction between the harassment perpetrated by men as opposed
to women. Woman-on-woman bullying is
actually on the rise, according to Dr. Gary Namie, psychologist and co-founder
of the Workplace Bullying Institute, “Bullies are of both genders, but women
bullies tend to disrupt relations or pit worker against worker. Men would rather
push people around to show hierarchy.” Regardless, it is becoming clear that
the damage inflicted by online bullying can have more traumatic impact than even
in-person sexual harassment. This is perhaps because online harassment tends to
be much more personalised usually touching on a target’s deepest insecurities
which is a common mode of female harassment across the board.
Statistics also show that over 80
percent of female bullies choose female targets where the bullying typically
involves ostracising a victim to spreading rumors or betraying trust. As
surprising as it may be to find this kind of activity in the adult workplace, it
continues to be a significant problem that only some employers take
seriously.
Polls indicate
that the vast majority of women experiencing this kind of negativity at work,
believe their supervisors and bosses consider it a trivial matter and therefore
must endure an abusive environment.
