Sadly, most people will come across a workplace bully at some point. Unwarranted criticism, ostracism, personal insults, and verbal or physical threats are just some of the tools in the bully’s locker. Over time, the target of bullying can find it increasingly difficult to defend themselves from this behaviour.

Bullying undermines productive workplaces, and can damage the reputations of both the bully and the organisation. Of course, it is even more damaging for the targets of the bully, who report physical and psychological health problems, job loss, and even symptoms of post-traumatic stress.

With up to one in ten UK employees experiencing bullying, this problem could affect more than three million workers across the country.

In a recent research study drawing on data from 2,469 employees over a four-year period, we examined whether experiences of bullying were related to changes in the “big five” personality traits: openness, conscientiousness, extroversion, agreeableness and neuroticism.

It’s well known that bullying is bad for wellbeing, performance and mood. But why would we think that bullying might change core aspects of a person, including their personality?

Our predictions were primarily based on a personality change theory. The core idea is that repeatedly experiencing thoughts, emotions and reactions that are at odds with a person’s normal traits can actually change them over time.

For example, extroverts are typically cheerful, sociable people who seek excitement. However, an extrovert exposed to bullying would in all likelihood start to experience negative emotions regularly. They might withdraw socially, and could learn that social isolation is an effective way to avoid bullying. As a result, their normal outgoing traits might reduce over time.

Our results showed that being bullied was associated with significant reductions in extrovert traits and conscientiousness (that is, being dependable and organised). The drop in conscientiousness could be because the target feels demotivated by the unfairness of being bullied – or the bullying may even take the form of removing meaningful tasks from the colleague.

Being bullied was also linked to increased neuroticism, which is the tendency to experience negative emotional states such as anxiety, anger and depression.

We also found that longer periods of bullying were associated with the target becoming less of an extrovert and more neurotic.

This suggests that, in addition to all the other harms, bullying can also rob people of their cheerfulness, sociability, dependability and calmness.

Who do bullies target?

Our research also explored whether personality traits were a risk factor for experiencing bullying. We discovered that conscientiousness and extroversion may put workers at greater risk of attracting the attention of a workplace bully.

A cautious interpretation of this might infer that conscientious employees are targeted by those envious of their higher performance levels (tall poppy syndrome – where high-flying people are “cut down” out of a misplaced sense of egalitarianism). It is less clear however why extroverts might be targeted.

Interestingly, when we looked at people who experienced sustained bullying over longer periods of time, we found that other personality traits were risk factors. Neuroticism, openness (encompassing traits of imagination, curiosity and novelty) and disagreeableness were all linked to experiencing bullying for a longer duration.

This indicates that emotional, unconventional and argumentative people tend to experience the most bullying. However, it’s still not fully understood whether it is personality that attracts bullying, or whether in fact the bullying is driving personality change.

There is little other research on the personality types most likely to be targeted by bullies. And we don’t yet know if the personality changes suffered by them are likely to be permanent. However, we do have concrete knowledge about the factors that are most helpful in limiting the impact of bullying on victims.

Working in a supportive environment where wellbeing is prioritised and where there are processes to enable a resolution can really help those experiencing bullying. Equally, receiving support from colleagues, friends and family can limit the damaging effects.

Ultimately, bullying is an escalating process that causes lasting harm. The best medicine is to end the experience as soon as possible, or better yet, prevent it altogether.