That's men for you:Human beings have a fundamental need to be treated fairly. A piece of research conducted among thousands of civil servants in London for more than a decade suggests that unfair treatment in the workplace can actually kill.
Since complaints of workplace bullying have escalated to previously unheard-of levels, this finding is alarming.
A colleague of mine used to say that if you stood on the street handing out free pencils but refused to give a pencil to one particular individual, then that person will become angry and upset. In a material sense all that is at stake is a pencil. But in a psychological sense, something else is at stake: the need to be treated fairly. Once the perception of unfair treatment kicks in, it doesn't really matter that all we're talking about is a pencil.
That's an example of just how important fairness is to our emotional wellbeing. Think back over some of your own fallings out with people who treated you unfairly and you will probably find that what was at stake was not all that great: it was the unfairness itself that caused the breach.
The research among British civil servants was conducted by a team led by Dr Roberto De Vogli at University College London. The numbers and the timescale for the research are impressive: more than 8,000 civil servants in London were studied over an average period of 11 years.
The researchers found that those who said they had been treated unfairly were 50 per cent more likely than their colleagues to say that their physical or mental health was poor. More alarmingly, they were 55 per cent more likely to have had a heart attack or symptoms of heart disease.
Why would unfair treatment have these effects? Dr De Vogli puts forward a range of explanations which will be familiar to counsellors and GPs.
First, people who see themselves as treated unfairly can develop strong feelings of hostility towards whoever is mistreating them or towards the organisation that is employing them. Studies over many years have shown links between hostility and poor health.
Alternatively, the person who is treated unfairly may become depressed. Depression also has been linked with poor physical health.
People who are bullied in the workplace very often get relatively little sleep at night as they lie awake replaying distressing scenes or re-imagining what they should have said to their tormentor.
If they are smokers, they may start to chain smoke, thereby increasing the damage which they are already inflicting on their health. If they drink, they may begin to drink excessively. Alcohol can give people a false sense of control - attractive to a person who is being bullied.
People who are being bullied can also very easily drop healthy activities. The person who goes to the gym, plays football or just goes out for a laugh with friends can all too easily stop doing these healthy things out of exhaustion or emotional upset.
According to the report on this research in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, other studies have found that where an employing organisation insists on fair treatment of its workforce, the likelihood of heart disease actually falls.
Fairness you might say saves lives; unfairness can kill. Perhaps it can do worse than kill: there is reason to believe that hypertension, as measured by high blood pressure, can contribute to the risk of developing Alzheimer's disease.
If a person is being bullied at work, and if their efforts to bring an end to this treatment are unsuccessful, then they really ought to consider getting out of there before their health is damaged. And decent employers who want to treat employees well should have their antennae raised for any signs of workplace bullying.