More than a quarter of U.S. workers have experienced some form of bullying at work, perpetrated most often by their boss, recent findings show.

Following in the footsteps of Office Space, 9 to 5 and others, the newly released Horrible Bosses is Hollywood’s latest humorous take on management-induced misery (and revenge). The newest in the genre offers three nightmare bosses: an overbearing psycho, a sexual predator and a corrupt business owner who “plans to funnel toxic waste into an unsuspecting population,” according to the movie’s website.

Such terrible managerial behavior may be hilarious on the big screen, but in real life workplace bullying severely affects employees’ health and employers’ bottom lines, according to the nonprofit Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI).

“Bullies wreck a terrible toll within an organization,” John Baldoni, author of Lead Your Boss and several other books on leadership, writes at the WBI’s blog. “Their behavior leads to increased levels of stress among employees, higher rates of absenteeism and higher-than-normal attrition.”

Simply put, bullying is any behavior by employers or co-workers that subjects targets to repeated, abusive conduct resulting in health-harming physical and psychological effects.

Today, these toxic workers remain an all-too-common problem for millions of American professionals.

According to the WBI’s latest annual survey, released last year, 35 percent of the U.S. workforce report being bullied on the job. While the 2010 number is lower than in the 2007 report (37 percent), that is still an estimated 53.5 million American workers who experienced bullying firsthand last year. An additional 15 percent witnessed workplace bullying.

A newer study, from CareerBuilder.com, finds that 27 percent of U.S. workers have experienced some form of bullying at work.

In the job-search site’s survey of more than 5,600 full-time workers nationwide, the majority of workers who have felt bullied neither confronted nor reported the perpetrator. Of those, 21 percent said it was because they feared the bullying would escalate.

Of those who have confronted the bully about his or her actions (47 percent), 43 percent said the bullying stopped, 13 percent reported the bullying became worse and 44 percent said the bullying stayed the same. Approximately 28 percent took their concerns to a higher authority and reported the bully to their HR department. While 38 percent of these workers stated that measures were taken to investigate and resolve the situation, the majority of workers (62 percent) said no action was taken.

What can companies do to prevent this kind of abuse in the workplace?

“As with any form of harassment, management’s vigilance is key,” with the employer close enough to day-to-day operations that such harassment is recognizable, Monster.com says.

Yet a big part of the problem is that the manager is the bully, apparently thinking that “I’m the boss” is a reasonable justification for conducting him- or herself in a way that is threatening, humiliating or intimidating.

While perpetrators can be found in all ranks within organizations, including peers and even subordinates, the WBI concludes that the vast majority (72 percent) are bosses — managers, supervisors and executives.

As with the 2010 WBI findings, CareerBuilder concludes that the most common culprit is typically the boss. While 11 percent of respondents felt bullied by a co-worker, 14 percent felt bullied by their immediate supervisor and 7 percent said the bully was someone else higher up in the organization — perhaps the boss’s boss?

“Avoidance of the bullying issue by senior management is a contributing factor to why bully bosses remain in their positions,” Baldoni says. “Until senior management looks more closely at the ‘numbers behind the numbers’ — absenteeism, lower engagement scores and turnover — bullies will remain with us.”

Earlier

Workplace Bullying Runs Rampant

Understanding Office Bullies

From the Playground to the Boardroom: Workplace Bullies

Resources

One-in-Four Workers Have Felt Bullied in the Workplace
CareerBuilder.com, April 20, 2011

2010 U.S. Workplace Bullying Survey
Workplace Bullying Institute, August 2010

Warren Buffett: Why Did He Enable a Bullying Exec?
by John Baldoni
Workplace Bullying Institute, April 28, 2011

Workplace Bullying: Who’s Your Bully?
by John Rossheim
Monster.com, Jan. 20, 2007