New Technology Triggers Explosion in Workplace Bullying
First Study into Electronic Harassment Highlights Danger and Dependency; Report Launched Same Week as World's First Workplace Bullying Charity and National Conference

Novell UK

- 2nd June, 1997 - 

Electronic mail (email) is being abused as an easy means for individuals to bully and harass their colleagues, according to an independent research report released today from Novell UK and Ireland, the networking software company. The findings come at the same time as the launch of the first-ever workplace bullying charity, the Andrea Adams Trust.

Over half of the 1,043 people surveyed claimed to regularly receive 'flame-mails', or abusive e-mails. A further 25% said they knew of colleagues who regularly receive flame-mails. Of those, 84% said they could name up to ten colleagues who had been flamed. The majority of respondents are electronically bullied by their superiors (54%) and primarily by immediate managers. Men are the biggest bullies, being five times more likely than women to flame others.

Publication of the report, entitled Shaming, Blaming and Flaming: Corporate Miscommunication in the Digital Age, also coincides with a national conference on workplace bullying where Novell will be presenting the findings of the research to the public for the first time.*

According to the report, the abuse of e-mail can lead to stress, loss of confidence, loss of productivity and an avoidance of face-to-face communication with colleagues. In some cases, targets have been so traumatised by a flame-mail that they have left their jobs. Despite this, the overwhelming majority say they are dependent on e-mail to do their jobs and nearly 70% say they could not be without it.

Psychologist Dr David Lewis, who analysed the survey's findings, commented: "E-mail is completely void of the physical and tonal clues that face-to-face and voice communications provide to help interpret meaning. It also lacks the consideration and thought usually afforded to other forms of written communication. Instead, email is immediate, often impetuous and, consequently, wide open to misuse and misunderstanding."

Andrew Sadler-Smith, deputy managing director of Novell UK and Ireland, said, "The business potential of today's technology, and in particular email, is massive. However, this report clearly demonstrates that there is a darker side. In order to get the most benefit, employers must be fully aware of the dangers as well. Companies need to establish clear guidelines for email usage and a formal channel to deal with those who breach those guidelines."

Other key findings from the report include:

• 23% of flame-mail recipients receive them several times a week and 48% several times a month.
• Men are both the most frequent victims of flame-mail and the most frequent perpetrators. Nearly one in three men who have received flame-mails receive them on a weekly basis. Nearly half of all male respondents admit that they have flamed colleagues.
• Women are much more likely to feel upset, angry, stressed, frustrated or helpless as a result of receiving a flame-mail.
• The most common reaction to receiving a flame-mail was to reply with another flame-mail (31% of all respondents).
• One in six respondents (14%) reported that they or someone they knew had been officially reprimanded or disciplined by a manager via e-mail.
• One in 70 - or one in an average small company - had left their companies due to a flame-mail.
• Nearly one-third of flame-mail recipients (31%) had stopped communicating with a colleague because of a flame-mail or felt like doing so. Nearly one in five (18%) said that their relationship with a particular colleague had irreversibly deteriorated as a result of a single flame-mail.
• Despite the many dangers for abuse, respondents are highly dependent on email. Seventy-five per cent said they enjoyed using email, 60% rely on email for communicating with colleagues and 60% say they are more efficient because of email.
• Email was deemed the most useful of all communication methods amongst the majority of respondents (43%).
• Seventy-six percent of respondents also said that most email messages were very useful and relevant.
• Nevertheless, 94% said they waste up to an hour each day reading and responding to irrelevant email messages.
• Voice-mail is used by less than half (44% of respondents). It is also deemed the least useful of all communication methods and is preferred by a mere 1% of respondents.

The report is based on a telephone survey of 1,043 employees from companies in the UK and Ireland where electronic mail is used for internal communication. The survey was commissioned by Novell and conducted by RONIN Research Services, a world-leading, independent, market research agency.

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Novell's UK Web site is at http://www.uk.novell.com/uk/

* Copies of the report are available from Firefly Communications, priced £40. A separate booklet of flame-mail definitions is also available, priced £5. Proceeds from sales of the report will be donated to the Andrea Adams Trust. Copies of the report are available at no-charge to press.
Firefly Communications, 25/4 The Coda Centre, 189 Munster Road, London SW6 6AW, Tel 0171 381 4505, email sglazer@firefly.co.uk
Novell will be presenting these findings for the first time at a national conference on 5 June 1997. The conference, Bullying: Its Recognition and Management at Work, will be held at Staffordshire University. Call Alison Parr on 01785 353401 for more press information.

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