Almost half of victims of cyber bullying attacks in the workplace have not been taken seriously by their employers when seeking support and assistance, according to a survey of 1,782 employees by Australia’s online career network, LinkMe.com.au.

Half of all cyber bullying is carried out by colleagues, closely followed by 41.1% attributed directly to bosses. This may well be why only 45.9% of victims report incidents of bullying.

“This is an extremely worrying trend,” says Campbell Sallabank, CEO of LinkMe.com.au. “The increase in incidents of bullying is partly because of the changes technological development has brought to society at large and at work,” says Campbell Sallabank, CEO of LinkMe.com.au.

“People today are more stressed and work is more pressured, leaving less time for the development of the healthy professional relationships that reduce both bullying and the perception of bullying,” says Sallabank. “A huge 79.4% of employees say that they think it is easier for workplace bullying to occur in cyber space rather than face-to-face.”

“With only half (49.5%) of reported incidents being taken seriously, the modern workplace is facing a huge problem, that will only serve to worsen employers’ ability to retain staff and maintain a healthy happy, workforce if it is not addressed.”

When let down by their employers, some employees have attempted to resolve the problem by confronting the perpetrators face-to-face, but 52.9% of employees are simply left to struggle in an extremely distressing situation with no possibility of resolution whatsoever.

Whatever happened to a good old fashioned screaming match in the office?