Prevention of bullying at work in a public organization of the State of Ceará, Brazil

Bullying at work is a theme that has been widely discussed in recent decades, adding to the topics studied in the occupational health area. A project to prevent and control bullying in public administration was implemented in 2009, with the purpose of encouraging studies on the concept of this phenomenon, and promoting its prevention and control, as well as providing healthier working conditions among civil servants in Ceará state, Brazil. This article reports on the establishment of the first Committee for the Prevention of Bullying at Work, the training of a team of civil servants to intervene in bullying situations, and on the assessment of this training. The training lasted five months, with meetings every two weeks as well as visits to units of one of the state secretaries. At the end of the process in 2010, the training and its appropriateness to the project proposal was assessed by semi-structured interviews conducted with members of the team. Although results showed that team members were not totally committed to the proposal, after training they had a better undestanding and were more prepared to act in cases of bullying at work.