More than third of workers who witness misconduct at work fail to report it

A recent survey found that one in four employees have been aware of misconduct during the past year at work. Yet, 35% of those workers decided not to speak up. When asked what influenced their decision, 32% said they felt speaking up might jeopardise their job and 27% did not believe that corrective action would be taken.

It is suggested a third failing to speak up is positive and a significant improvement on the statistics from five years ago and that global movements like #MeToo are influencing staff in the  workplace, not just in terms of people speaking up about harassment, but in feeling empowered to raise workplace concerns about other issues.

The researchers also asked workers which dubious behaviours they thought were morally acceptable. Over half said it was fine to make personal phone calls at work, and 39% saw no problem with taking pens from the stationery cupboard home with them.

However, only 14% agreed with fiddling expenses payments to get a little more cash, and just 17% thought it would be acceptable to favour family or friends when hiring or awarding contracts.