Being Treated as Invisible is More Harmful than Harassment

Although surveys show that people consider it more psychologically harmful to be harassed than ignored, workplace ostracism turns out to have a bigger impact than harassment, doing greater harm to employees’ well-being and causing greater job turnover, says a team led by Jane O’Reilly of the University of Ottawa. Ostracism is also more common: Of more than 1,000 university staff members, 91% reported such experiences as being ignored, avoided, shut out of conversations, or treated as invisible over the past year, whereas 45% reported being harassed, such as by being teased, belittled, or embarrassed.