What is bullying?

Defining bullying

Bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at a person or group that creates a risk to health and safety.

Bullying behaviour can be:

• between employees
• directed at employees from people who have relationships with the workplace, such as:
  • clients
  • customers
  • contractors
  • patients
  • volunteers
  • members of the public.

Examples of bullying behaviours that can create a risk to health and safety include the following.

• Verbal abuse, including:
  • being sworn at, threatened or insulted
  • continued inappropriate and/or invalid criticism
  • name-calling
  • practical jokes
  • unjustified punishment
  • belittling and humiliation
  • gossip and malicious rumours
  • inappropriate language
  • yelling.
• Hostile or isolating behaviour; for example, exclusion from conversations, activities or access to training.
• Abusive or offensive emails or other correspondence, including online and physical mail.
• Threatening or intimidating body language.
• Unreasonable demands, unnecessary pressure and impossible deadlines targeted at an employee or group of employees.
• Unfair allocation of tasks and/or working hours.
• Undermining a person’s work performance, recognition or position.
• Deliberately withholding necessary work-related information or resources, or supplying incorrect information.
• Setting tasks that are above or beyond a person’s skill level without access to training or support.
• Inappropriate surveillance or monitoring; for example, excessive monitoring of work tasks or micromanagement.
• Inappropriate interference with personal belongings or work equipment.
• Unreasonably isolating an employee from others.
• Hazing activities that humiliate, belittle, degrade or aim to ‘harden up’ employees who may be joining a group. For example:
  • assigning meaningless tasks
  • tasks of personal servitude
  • sleep deprivation
  • public humiliation
  • extensive physical activity
  • consumption of non-food items
  • exposure to extreme weather.

Bullying can cause physical or psychological harm, or both.

Bullying may be directed at an individual or a group. Other people can also be exposed in circumstances where bullying is not directed at them specifically. For example, this could happen if they are exposed to any of the following situations.

• A colleague being isolated from others, such as being excluded from meetings, discussions or social interactions.
• Gossip or malicious rumours about a colleague. This includes in a virtual workplace environment or through a social media or messaging platform.

Where exposure to bullying is repeated over an extended period, the risk of psychological harm can compound over time.

What is not bullying

Some behaviours or actions do not meet the definition of bullying. They include:

• Reasonable management action or performance processes carried out in a reasonable manner. Examples of reasonable management action may include the following.

  • Genuine and reasonable instructions.
  • Setting reasonable performance goals, standards and deadlines.
  • Rostering and allocating work hours, where the requirements are reasonable.
  • Transferring an employee for genuine operational reasons.
  • Informing an employee about inappropriate behaviour in an objective and confidential way.
  • Not promoting an employee where a reasonable process is followed and documented.
  • Making organisational changes or restructuring, with consultation.
  • Constructive and objective comments to help employees improve their work performance or conduct.
  • Constructively delivered feedback or coaching intended to help employees improve their work performance or the standard of their behaviour.
  • Reasonable grievances.
  • Justified termination of employment.

  For more information on reasonable management action and how to manage underperformance lawfully and safely, see the Fair Work Ombudsman’s Managing underperformance best practice guide.

• Differences of opinion or disagreements between employees and colleagues, patients or clients.
• A single incident of aggression or violence, such as verbal abuse.
• Behaviours that meet the definition of poor workplace relationships, such as low-level incivility, sarcasm or mocking. If unaddressed, these behaviours may escalate into more harmful behaviours such as bullying.

Bullying in the working environment

Bullying is a serious OHS issue. It can cause both psychological and/or physical harm.

Bullying can occur across various workplace settings. These include the following.

• In the workplace, which is wherever an employee works for the employer.
• Where an employee is working remotely, including if the person’s workplace is:
  • the employee’s home
  • another person’s home, for example, during home visits or outreach work
  • online.
• At work-related meetings, activities or events, such as a work Christmas party.
• Between people who work together or share the same workplace.
• Cyberbullying, including by phone, email, social media or online through a work connection.
• At employer-provided accommodation, such as fly-in fly-out (FIFO) sites or at work conferences.
• Where employees do work tasks that require them to interact with members of the public who have a connection to the workplace. For example, customers, clients, patients, board members or volunteers.

Who is most at risk?

Anyone can experience bullying in the working environment. It is not limited to particular roles or industries. But some people are more likely to experience it, including:

• young or old employees
• people who are new or returning to the workforce
• apprentices
• people with disability, injury or illness
• people who are Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander
• culturally and racially marginalised people
• women
• people who identify as Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and gender-diverse, Intersex, Queer and Asexual (LGBTIQA+)
• migrant workers
• people holding temporary visas
• people in insecure working arrangements such as casual, seasonal, labour hire or fixed-term employees
• employees living away from family and friends; for example, fly-in fly-out (FIFO) workers or ship and flight crew
• people who experience literacy or language barriers
• employees who may be exposed to multiple forms of discrimination that can combine or intersect to increase their risk of harm. For example, race or ethnicity, gender, sexuality, literacy
• employees who have previously been exposed to bullying in the workplace.

When these aspects, characteristics or factors intersect, it can increase the risk of someone being bullied in the working environment. They can also make people less likely to report bullying.

Workplace risk factors

Employers have an obligation to provide and maintain a safe working environment, so far as is reasonably practicable. They should consider how their workplace characteristics may increase the risk of bullying. These can include any factor or factors in any of the following:

For more information on these factors, see Part 1 – Introduction of the Psychological health compliance code.

Specific risk factors that may increase the risk of bullying in the working environment include the following.

• Workplaces where the organisational culture tolerates, minimises or accepts disrespectful and harmful behaviours. This includes bullying.
• Workplaces with poor processes for reporting and responding to bullying. 
• Workplace leaders with poor understanding of the nature, drivers and impacts of bullying.
• Workplaces that lack diversity, are very hierarchical or have unequal gender representation in leadership positions.
• Working with customers, patients, clients or students. This includes people who display bullying behaviours, regardless of their intention.
• Working with members of the public.
• Working at night, alone or in licensed venues.
• Working in remote locations with limited supervision. For example, FIFO workers.
• Working in isolation from other employees. For example, doing home visits.
• Working with inadequate supervision and support.
• Workplaces where other psychosocial hazards:
  • frequently occur
  • are inherent
  • are unable to be eliminated.

Examples of other psychosocial hazards that may increase the risk of bullying include the following.

How does bullying affect people?

Bullying can cause physical or psychological harm, or both, to:

• the person it is directed at
• anyone witnessing or experiencing the behaviour indirectly.

This can lead to significant social and economic costs for:

• the affected employee
• other employees
• employers
• the wider community.

Impact on the affected employee

If an employee is exposed (directly or indirectly) to bullying in their working environment, they may experience a negative psychological response that creates a risk to their health and safety. This may lead to a risk of psychological or physical harm, or both.

Individuals respond to psychosocial hazards differently. Employers should be aware of the warning signs showing that an employee may be at risk of harm. A negative psychological response may indicate or lead to a psychological or physical injury or illness, or both.

Examples of negative psychological responses include:

• feeling anxious
• irritability
• anger
• change in perception
• negative thinking patterns
• inability to fall or stay asleep due to overactive thoughts
• thoughts of self-harm or suicide.

Psychological injuries from exposure to bullying can include:

• depression
• anxiety
• acute stress disorder
• post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).

Physical injuries from exposure to bullying can include:

• cardiovascular disease, heart attack, stroke
• musculoskeletal disorders, such as sprains, strains, soft tissue injuries and chronic pain.

Impacts on the employer and workplace

Bullying also has implications for the employer and working environment. Some examples of the impacts include:

• high turnover and poor staff retention, leading to higher recruitment costs
• reduced morale and productivity
• increased absenteeism
• direct and indirect costs of investigations and procedures to address reported allegations
• reputational damage.