Workplace Bullying - Complete Guide

Workplace bullying rarely announces itself. It builds slowly through comments, exclusions and unreasonable demands until you're left wondering whether you're overreacting or whether something is genuinely wrong. It isn't, and you're not.

What counts as workplace bullying in Australia

Under the Fair Work Act, workplace bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker or group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety. The key words are "repeated" and "unreasonable" — a single terse email usually won't meet the threshold, but a pattern of belittling comments, unfair exclusion from meetings, impossible deadlines set deliberately to make you fail, public humiliation, or aggressive micromanagement can. Bullying can come from a manager, a peer, or even someone you supervise, and it can happen in person, by email, by phone, or through chat platforms like Slack or Teams.

Bullying vs reasonable management action

Related: Workplace Bullying - Tips and Strategies for Documentation and Reporting.

This is the distinction that trips up most people, and the one HR and the Fair Work Commission (FWC) will test first. A manager giving you critical but fair performance feedback, setting reasonable deadlines, restructuring your role, or following a proper disciplinary process is not bullying — even if it feels awful. It only becomes bullying if the management action is carried out in an unreasonable way: shouted rather than spoken, done in front of colleagues to humiliate you, applied only to you while others doing the same thing face nothing, or based on fabricated performance issues. Ask yourself: would a reasonable person, looking at this objectively, call the way this was handled unreasonable? If yes, it's worth documenting.

How to document what's happening

Documentation is the single most powerful thing you can do, because memory fades and HR investigations run on evidence, not impressions. For every incident, record:

• Date and time — as close to the moment as possible
• Location — the meeting room, the group chat, the car park
• Who was involved — the person, and anyone else present
• What was said or done — as close to word-for-word as you can manage
• How you responded and how it affected your work or wellbeing
• Witnesses — names, and whether they'd be willing to corroborate

Keep this log somewhere separate from work systems, since you may lose access to your work laptop or email if the situation escalates. A tool like Bully Log is built for exactly this — it timestamps each entry as you write it, which matters because a contemporaneous record (written close to the event, not reconstructed from memory months later) carries far more weight with HR, the FWC or a court than a diary written up after the fact. Save any supporting evidence too — emails, screenshots of messages, meeting invites, rosters showing you were excluded, or performance reviews that contradict what you're now being told.

Reporting: manager, then HR, then further up

See also: Workplace Bullying - Tips and Strategies to Address and Prevent.

Most workplaces expect complaints to start with your direct manager, unless they're the one bullying you — in which case go straight to their manager or HR. When you report, be factual rather than emotional in the written complaint: state what happened, when, who witnessed it, and what outcome you're seeking (an apology, mediation, a formal investigation, a change in reporting lines). Ask for the complaint to be acknowledged in writing and ask what the process and timeframe will be. Follow up every verbal conversation with a short email: "Thanks for meeting today, just confirming what we discussed…" — this creates a paper trail without you having to accuse anyone of ignoring you.

Escalating externally: Fair Work Commission and beyond

If internal processes don't fix things, or the bullying is severe and ongoing, workers covered by the Fair Work system can apply to the Fair Work Commission for a "stop bullying" order. The FWC can't award compensation for bullying under this power, but it can order specific behavioural changes — such as requiring the employer to follow its own policy, separating you from the person involved, or monitoring the situation. There's no strict time limit to apply, but the FWC needs to be satisfied the bullying is ongoing or likely to continue, so act while it's still current. The Fair Work Ombudsman can advise on your broader workplace rights, and your union — if you have one — can represent you through both internal and external processes at no extra cost to you. If the bullying involves discrimination based on sex, race, disability, age or another protected attribute, the Australian Human Rights Commission is another avenue, and if you're a federal public servant, Comcare has its own scheme.

Looking after yourself while this plays out

Complaint processes take weeks or months, and that stretch is genuinely hard on your health. Use your employer's Employee Assistance Program (EAP) if one exists — it's confidential and free. Talk to your GP if sleep, anxiety or stress are building up; a mental health care plan can get you subsidised psychology sessions. Tell someone outside work what's going on, even briefly, so you're not carrying it alone. And keep documenting throughout — a solid, dated log built as things happen is what turns "he said, she said" into a case HR and the Commission can actually act on. This is general information, not legal advice — for anything formal, a lawyer or your union can tell you exactly where you stand.