“Did You See That Too?” Who Are the Observers of Workplace Mistreatment

Abstract

Bystander intervention (BI) is an approach that has been used widely for addressing sexual and dating violence and has more recently been extended to other settings and types of harm, including workplace mistreatment. Understanding more about the opportunity to intervene—including the types of observed behaviors, who is observing them, and the frequency and breadth of those observations—is an important step to help inform the development of workplace BI programs. As such, the current study involved an anonymous online survey about observing workplace mistreatment, distributed by Qualtrics panel service to adult employees in workplaces throughout the United States ( n = 1,484). A total of 64.5% of participants indicated that they witnessed at least one type of mistreatment behavior against a work colleague within the past 12 months, and almost two-thirds of the behaviors were observed more than once. Most behaviors were observed in-person at work and were predominantly seen and seen/heard about. Employees who were nonbinary gender, had an advanced degree, were younger, and were shift workers were more likely to witness mistreatment. The findings indicate that witnessing mistreatment is common and that employees observe multiple and co-occurring behaviors, which suggests that BI strategies need to be multifaceted. The results also suggest that BI training should acknowledge people’s social identity, work status, type of position, and access to power, while also being accompanied by good organizational responses and structures.