Suzy Lamplugh Trust report shows increasing cyber abuse at work
New report shows an increase during the pandemic as findings are published to coincide with National Personal Safety Day
Personal safety charity, Suzy Lamplugh Trust, has marked 2020's 'National Personal Safety Day' with a report on cyber abuse in the workplace - outlining that it affects around one third of us.
The Trust, who campaign and educate around all areas of personal safety, found that cyber abuse has also escalated for over 80% of sufferers during the Covid 19 pandemic.
With April 2020 seeing nearly 50% of the working population officially becoming classed as 'home workers', the report found around 35% of UK workers surveyed had or are experiencing some form of online abuse in the workplace - and is specifically linked to the safety and mental health of lone workers.
Suky?Bhaker, CEO of Suzy Lamplugh Trust,says: “The pandemic has caused a dramatic shift to online lone working at home. Our report demonstrates that this has led to a startling increase in cyber abuse in the workplace, which is highly concerning and is having a detrimental effect on the mental health of many employees."
Other key findings include:
• The abuse took the following forms: Cyberbullying (46%), Message Bombing (36%), Trolling (23%), Hacking (16%), Online Sexual harassment or CyberFlashing (12%), Digitally Enabled Stalking (11%)**.
• The platforms through which online abuse was overwhelmingly perpetrated were Facebook (40%), WhatsApp (36%) and Email (35%), followed by Zoom (18%) and Microsoft Teams (13%)**.
• Over a quarter of victims (27%) are being abused by a current manager/superior, followed by colleagues; other individuals included customers, patients, clients and service users.
• Three quarters of the victims (77%) felt that the abuse was targeted based on their personal characteristics. Of these, the most prominent characteristics were: gender (36%), race (33%) and age (33%)**.
• Over half (52%) of all respondents stated they had received no support or guidance from their employer around their personal safety at work. 49% agreed that they would like further support around lone working including training and personal safety policies.
For more information on the report in full and tips for guidance, please visit.
