Tackling Ireland's banking bullies

A survey by the Irish Bank Officials' Association (IBOA) revealed last week that a quarter of bank staff have suffered bullying or harassment at work, while 43% said they had witnessed bullying of colleagues. In addition, over 75% of bank staff find their job stressful, citing staff shortages and pressure to achieve targets as the causes.

Is Ireland's financial services sector really as bad as all that? Recruiters, at least, think not. Paul Cotter, managing director of recruiter Joslin Rowe, says candidates should be confident that financial services firms generally lead the way in diversity and equal opportunities.

"All our recruiters are trained in best practice and are taught how to educate clients, who may not realise they are being indirectly discriminatory in their job specifications, for example.

"As most firms in this sector are international, they need to be aware and reflect the workforces of the countries they operate within. I'm aware of very few instances of discrimination cases involving financial services firms in the press and most of the candidates who we speak to see them as true meritocracies," he adds.

A spokeswoman for Bank of Ireland says that its current recruitment process has been equality audited by occupational psychologists Pearn Kandola, and its recruiters receive on-going training in employment legislation and diversity awareness.

Recruiter Robert Walters keeps its clients up to date with age discrimination issues and legislation, but most companies have their own strict policies, says director Gemma Allen.

Stress at work may be more down to shortages of Irish finance talent and heavy workloads than deliberate nastiness - or so we'd like to think.