A third of civil servants say they are harassed at work

If the problem of workplace bullying in private companies is often mentioned, it should be noted that the public service is far from safe.

According to a study* carried out by Ipsos for Qualisocial (occupational health actor) on the occasion of the Fair of Mayors and Local Corporations that opens its doors this Tuesday, 80% of public sector agents indicate that harassment is frequent in their sector.

A figure that rises to 89% of hospital officials, 87% of territorial officials, 72% of state officials and 68% in public companies.

The territorial public service especially affected

More specifically, one in three public sector employees (32%) claims to have been the victim of harassment at work.

The phenomenon is particularly strong in the territorial civil service (40% of those surveyed have experienced it at least once), then in public companies (35%), in the state civil service (28%) and finally in the public service hospital (27%).

Among the types of harassment that public sector agents face the most, 70% are related to moral harassment: vexatious comments, filing cabinets, incessant criticism… Again, it is in the territorial civil service where the pressure is stronger (75%).

Harassment not always well identified

In fact, only 13% of public sector employees say they are well informed about workplace bullying and 7% say they are familiar with the legislation on the subject.

“This lack of information translates, for most agents, into a difficulty in accurately identifying situations of harassment at work. Thus, various situations related to bullying, tested within the framework of the study, are not identified as such by the agents… For example: a colleague challenges his colleagues by saying ‘my little’ and ‘my cute'”, we can read .

At the same time, 60% of public sector employees consider that the legislation does not go far enough in the fight against harassment (a figure that rises to 81% for hospital public service employees). And 65% believe that the current government is not involved in the issues.

*: Ipsos Barometer for Cualisocial carried out online from September 15 to 19, 2022 with a sample of 2,000 workers who work in a private or public structure of at least five people, constituting a representative national sample of this population. Of the 2,000 workers surveyed, 482 of them work in the public sector (public service, public institution or public company).