Violence affects one in six at work: survey

A scene from the TV series "Misaeng," which depicted life at the workplace. / Korea Times file

One in six people has experienced violence at work, a survey shows.

In recruitment portal Saramin's survey of 1,105 office workers, 15.7 percent said they had been subject to violence at work in the form of hitting or pushing.

More men (20.1 percent) than women (10.2 percent) had experienced violence.

In the survey that allowed respondents to provide multiple answers, the largest percentage had been "hit or punched," followed by "pinched or scratched," "pushed," "hit with documents," "kicked" and "hit with something thrown.”

Those responsible were mainly their bosses (75.3 percent) and CEOs or executives (23.6 percent).

Most people said they were subject to violence less than once a month (51.1 percent), but 19 percent said once or twice a week and 10.9 percent said every day.

Among them, 36.8 percent said they had quit work because of violence.

But 57.5 percent said they endured it because they thought "(reporting) wouldn't fix anything (68 percent)," they "didn't want to create conflict (44 percent)" and because they thought "they would be subject to disadvantages (38 percent).”