The latest study reveals shocking facts about outbreaks of psychological violence and mobbing in Lithuanian road transport companies. Although it is estimated that the transport and logistics sector generated almost 19 billion euros in revenue last year, economic indicators do not reflect the price paid by employees at the expense of their health. One of the reasons why a share of employees is constantly browsing new job advertisements is also the prevention of psychological violence in companies, performed to put a ‘tick’.
The results of the study show that almost half of the survey participants were victims of insults and bullying by managers and co-workers, and a fifth experienced long-term and systematic psychological violence – mobbing. About 13 percent of survey participants blamed the manager for the harassment, and another 7 percent blamed colleagues who were in league with the manager.
Responding to open-ended questions, respondents complained about huge workloads, insults, age and gender discrimination, sexual harassment, lack of respect and support from their immediate supervisors.
One of the employees shared his painful experience: ‘If you make a mistake, they will shout at you and call you ‘baboons’, backward persons. Before going to eat, they show you the scales and tell you: those who weigh the least can go to eat, and those who weigh more should be on a diet’. Others consoled themselves that they experienced constant anxiety both in the evenings and at weekends about what awaits them at work the next day. It is no coincidence that on average three out of ten respondents were preparing to leave their jobs when the opportunity arose.
The main reasons that encouraged the respondents to leave their jobs were abuse by managers when assigning work tasks, poor self-feeling, experiencing material damage and insecurity due to formally performed prevention of psychological violence. Prevention of psychological violence, including mobbing, is often limited only to lectures.
A total of 440 employees of road transport companies were interviewed during the study (error – 5%).
The study was conducted by Simona Domarkaitė, a Master student at the Faculty of Economics and Management of Vytautas Magnus University (supervisor Prof. Dr. Jolita Vveinhardt).
This project has received funding from the Research Council of Lithuania (LMTLT), agreement No S-ST-23-220.