Feb 21, 2025 01:35 PM IST
Workplace bullying sets off a chain reaction that not only affects the victim but also the victim’s partner.
Bullying universally is known to have a detrimental effect on mental health. Bullying happens in various settings from school to the workplace. For workplace bullying, the repercussions don’t include just job satisfaction or poor mental health, they also affect sleep.
A study published in the Journal of Interpersonal Violence explores how workplace bullying leads to sleep disturbances and how these disturbances are ‘contagious’ for those around the victims.
Workplace bullying’s effect on sleep
Workplace bullying can happen from colleagues or superiors, resulting in not just poor job satisfaction and mental health issues but also trouble with sleep quality.
One of the big reasons for sleep problems is ‘anger rumination’. It’s when even after work, they constantly keep thinking about the negative experience in their office.
Employees’ repeated rumination over the bullying goes on, increasing stress which in turn leads to sleep issues. Mentally and emotionally they still can’t leave the workplace after the traumatic incident, carrying the emotional load back home.
How this affects their partners too
This sleep issue is not in isolation; instead, it’s ‘contagious,’ affecting their partners too. When a person has difficulty falling asleep because of work stress, their partner may experience a similar problem.
This ‘contagion’ is caused by waking up frequently, tossing and turning at night, and unintentionally waking up the partner sleeping next to them.
This causes shared exhaustion as workplace bullying doesn’t just affect the victim, but also those around them.
To alleviate the issue, the researchers recommended targeting workplace bullying with effective interventions. Companies should prioritize positive workplace relationships to lessen the emotional load, which later translates into physical issues like sleep difficulties.
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