20% of Americans find their workplace to be hostile & threatening, study finds

One in five American workers say they face a hostile or sometimes threatening environment at work, a new study finds.

According to an in-depth study of 3,066 U.S workers by the Rand Corp, Harvard Medical School and the University of California, Los Angeles, nearly 55% of workers surveyed face “unpleasant and potentially hazardous” conditions which can include cases of sexual harassment and bullying.

To top it off, nearly three quarters of workers spend at least 25% of their shift in conditions of “intense or repetitive physical” labor, which surprised the authors of the study the most.

“Wow — (work) is a pretty taxing place for many people,” lead author and Harvard Medical School economist Nicole Maestas said in a statement. “I was surprised by how pressured and hectic the workplace is.”

The study also found that less-educated workers endure tougher working conditions than those with higher education. For example, fewer than half of men without college degrees can take a break whenever they want to, compared to more than 76% of men with college degrees. Additionally, 68% of men without degrees spend at least a quarter of their time moving heavy loads.

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Not everything on the job front is grim, however. The study also found that more than 80% of workers say they get to solve problems and try out their own ideas during work hours. Not to mention, 58% of them say their bosses are supportive and 56% have good friends at work.

The survey was conducted in 2015 with Americans ages 25-71.