25% suffer violence at work: survey

Violence is becoming an issue, not only at school, but at workplaces. An employment information company asked 1,258 workers whether they had experienced violence at work and one out of every four interviewees answered “yes.” Career.co.kr, the information firm, said yesterday that most of the violence perpetrated at workplaces came from those in leadership positions. Violence includes verbal insults in this survey.
According to the survey, 20 percent were attacked by fellow employees and 40 interviewees said they had been hit by their subordinates. Beatings also came from business acquaintances and even from clients.
Most of the violence was physical, usually involving punching, slapping or pinching. But almost 10 percent were hit by thrown objects. More than 100 said they were beaten with a weapon, like lumber.
“Experiencing violence in school and in the military makes it look like, to Korean workers, beating is acceptable sometimes,” said Kim Il-shin, a human resource expert at a recruiting firm. “However, while violence cases among men are decreasing, the number of cases committed by women is growing. The degree is weaker than that committed by men.”
Conflicting opinions were the biggest factor of workplace violence, according to the interviewees, but 32 percent thought it was just because the wrongdoers didn’t like the victims. Intoxication from alcohol was also an important cause of violence.
Only 4 percent reported the incidents to the police. More than 65 percent did nothing while 24 percent quit their jobs.

By Hwang Young-jin Staff Writer [yhwang@joongang.co.kr]