Workplace Bullying Explained: What You Need to Know

Workplace bullying is more common than most people realise, and more often misunderstood — both by the people experiencing it and the people accused of it. Here's what it actually is, what it isn't, and what to do if it's happening to you.

What Workplace Bullying Actually Is

Workplace bullying is repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker, or group of workers, that creates a risk to health and safety. The key word is repeated — a pattern over time, rather than a single bad interaction, unless that one interaction is serious enough on its own, such as a threat or an act of intimidation. It doesn't have to come from a manager; colleagues, subordinates, clients, or customers can all be sources of workplace bullying, and it can happen in person, over email, in group chats, or across video calls.

What It Actually Looks Like Day to Day

Related: Workplace Bullying - Essential Steps to Document and Report.

Bullying rarely looks like the dramatic confrontations people picture. Far more often, it's quieter and more corrosive: being consistently excluded from meetings or information relevant to your role, having your work publicly criticised in a way colleagues' isn't, having credit for your work taken by someone else, being given impossible deadlines while others get reasonable ones, or having a manager use a sharper, more dismissive tone specifically with you. It can also include more overt behaviour — yelling, name-calling, spreading rumours, or deliberately isolating someone from the team.

• Persistent unfair criticism, disproportionate to actual performance
• Exclusion from meetings, information, or team social activity
• Unreasonable deadlines or workload compared to peers
• Public humiliation or belittling comments in front of others
• Withholding information needed to do your job properly
• Intimidation, threats, or aggressive behaviour

What It Isn't — Reasonable Management Action

This is the distinction that causes the most confusion. A manager giving honest, even critical, feedback isn't bullying. Setting performance expectations, running a legitimate disciplinary process, or making a decision you disagree with — like not approving leave at a busy time — isn't bullying either, provided it's done reasonably and consistently. The test isn't whether it felt unpleasant to receive; plenty of legitimate management action does. The test is whether the way it was carried out was reasonable — respectful, consistent with how others are treated, and for a genuine work-related reason, not a pretext to target someone.

Why It Matters Beyond How It Feels

See also: Bullying Documentation Tips Checklist: Your Guide to Workplace Safety.

Workplace bullying isn't just an interpersonal issue — under Australian work health and safety law, it's treated as a genuine psychosocial hazard that employers have a legal duty to manage. Left unaddressed, it's linked to real harm: anxiety, depression, sleep disruption, and physical symptoms of chronic stress, along with very real costs to the workplace in the form of turnover, absenteeism, and lost productivity. Understanding it clearly matters because naming what's happening accurately is the first step toward doing something about it.

What to Do If This Sounds Like Your Situation

Start documenting straight away, even before you're certain the situation qualifies as bullying — date, time, what was said or done, who was there, and how it affected you. This is where a tool like Bully Log helps: a quick, timestamped log built as events happen is far stronger evidence than a memory reconstructed weeks or months later if you decide to make a formal complaint. Talk to someone you trust rather than carrying it alone, and find out what your workplace's bullying or grievance policy actually says before you need to use it.

Where to Get Help If Internal Steps Don't Work

If reporting internally doesn't resolve things, you have real options outside your workplace. The Fair Work Ombudsman provides free, general information about your workplace rights, your union — if you have one — can advocate directly on your behalf, and your Employee Assistance Program, if your workplace offers one, provides confidential support while you work through the process. Where bullying is ongoing and internal steps haven't worked, eligible workers can apply to the Fair Work Commission for an order to stop the behaviour. This article is general information, not legal advice — for guidance specific to your circumstances, a union or an employment lawyer is the right next step.