Letting an employee ignore a co-worker they don’t care for can be more harmful to the targeted person than outright bullying, according to a new study from the University of B.C.
Researchers conducted surveys and found people who’ve experienced workplace ostracism were significantly more likely to face a higher proportion of health problems and feel little sense of workplace belonging.
“It (ostracism) threatens a sense of belonging and that may not sound important, but we know in psychology we have a fundamental need to belong — we’re social animals,” said study co-author Sandra Robinson, a professor at UBC’s Sauder School of Business.
“Bullying is almost the threat of social death, whereas ostracism is social death.”
She added when someone is being bullied, they are at least receiving attention and have a social role to play.
But if someone is ostracized in the workplace, Robsinson said “the signal is you’re not even worthy of negative attention, you’re not worth someone’s energy to react to you.”
The findings also revealed people who reported feeling ostracized were significantly more likely to quit. Researchers looked at the results from a Canadian university employment survey that showed turnover rates three years after the survey were much greater for those who felt ostracized.
Furthermore, the study found people considered workplace ostracism as less psychologically harmful and more socially appropriate than outright harassment. Respondents also said they were less likely to be reprimanded for ignoring colleagues than for bullying them.
Robinson said her research found workplace ostracism took place with equal frequency among men and women, however, men were more strongly impacted by it.
She also noted it’s very tough for employees to report this behaviour since companies don’t often have a policy about ignoring co-workers.
