Psychological harassment behaviours at work: Evaluation of Alo 170 Call Center applications

With the purpose of understanding the general framework of psychological harassment (mobbing) behaviors, this descriptive research examines the secondary data from Alo 170 Call Center applications of the employees throughout Turkey who were subject to psychological harassment (mobbing) at their workplace, within the time frame of 135 days starting from the beginning of 2014 until 15 May 2014. The findings of the study indicate that employee oriented psychological harassment behaviors increase exponentially each year and employees working in more developed regions and cities are subject more to such behaviors. In addition, according to research results, employees working in private sector than public sector are more subject to psychological harassment behaviors, these behaviors are practiced by the ones who have superior positions and by the fellows of the employees. Moreover, mostly females, employees with high education level and employees working in health and education businesses in the public sector; and males, employees with low education level and employees working in industry and service businesses like stores, restaurants and markets are subject to psychological harassment behaviors. Accordingly, as indicated by this research, psychological harassment behaviors which seriously harms employee health, destroys organizational efficiency and job peace and that has unfavorable reflection for society and the economy, is an important work problem. If no preemptive precautions are taken and such precautions are seriously executed, it will continue to be a serious problem both for the employees and their families and society as well. Keywords: Psychological harassment at work, Mobbing, Alo 170 Call Center