How common is workplace bullying or a hostile workplace environment in the industry?

You will find a jerk in every industry. Just like you would find a jerk in every part of the world.

I don’t know how common it is anywhere else, but it was rampant in the company that I used to work for. There wasn’t much we could do about it, because the people causing the problems were the bosses. We found out pretty quickly, that if you go to H.R. to complain, the victims are the ones who are almost always the ones who will get reprimanded and/or fired. Because of this, the company got sued on several occasions. But because the company had tons of money, it was just a drop in the bucket for them. For the victims, it was financially devastating to even consider bringing a lawsuit against the company. Most companies realize that it’s cheaper to fire the whistle blowers.

It varies from industry to industry, but it can happen anywhere.

@Kardamom What kind of company was this? & what kind of harassment was going on?

@raven860 It was a non-profit organization, but the big boss at this company was making a huge, massive salary that was not on par with the organization’s mission. He was an incompetent fool that had no knowledge of or interest in OSHA laws or on the basics of how you must (by law) treat employees. Because this dude was making so much money, he did everything in his power to make sure that he kept his job, this meant threatening employees, including making the managers directly under him follow his lead (breaking the law, disregarding OSHA regulations, not keeping and destroying records, not following proper legal procedures when it came to employee complaints about safety problems). Later on it was found out that he was involved in a huge theft cover up. Some of the lower on the totem pole employees, who’s job it was to make sure that everything was done legally, were fired immediately when they caught wind of the theft and the cover up. Other low level employees were fired when they went to the H.R. department to report abuses of the OSHA laws, after several employees got injured. The company realized that it was cheaper for them to fire people, and possibly go through a few lawsuits than it was for them to simply do the right thing. Some of the lower level employees could not afford legal counsel, so those people weren’t able to bring lawsuits against the company. So in fact, the company was correct, that it was cheaper just to fire the whistle blowers.