Workplace bullying in Australia

Workplace bullying continues to be a significant issue across Australian workplaces, affecting employee wellbeing, productivity, and organisational culture. While most employers are aware of the general concept of bullying, understanding who bullies, how they operate, and why can make the difference between reactive HR practices and a proactive, psychologically safe workplace.

Defining workplace bullying

Safe Work Australia defines workplace bullying as repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker or group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety. It can take many forms, verbal, physical, social, or psychological, and unlike a one-off conflict, bullying involves a pattern of power abuse and harm. As Einarsen and colleagues note, bullying is best understood as a form of persistent negative acts, such as isolation, humiliation, or obstruction, that degrade an individual's dignity or ability to function in the workplace.

Recognising the patterns bullies adopt

Understanding bullying means recognising the different personas bullies adopt in the workplace. Research by Namie and Namie, along with later work by Samnani and Singh, suggests that bullying tends to manifest through a small number of recurring styles and motives.

The screamer is often overt and aggressive, intimidating through yelling, threats, and public humiliation. This bully thrives on fear and tends to dominate meetings or interactions through volume and aggression. Such behaviour is often tolerated, or even rewarded, in performance-driven cultures where toxic leadership has become normalised, as Skogstad and colleagues have found.

The gatekeeper withholds information, resources, or opportunities to sabotage others, subtly but intentionally. Often operating in middle management, gatekeepers manipulate access to the tools others need to succeed. They frequently avoid detection because their tactics mimic legitimate performance management, even though their real intent is obstruction.

The two-faced colleague is highly manipulative: pleasant to superiors, while undermining colleagues behind the scenes. They may spread rumours, exclude others socially, or take credit for others' work. This bully tends to thrive in hierarchical or political environments where visibility is mistaken for integrity.

The micro-manager uses excessive control, nit-picking, and unrealistic expectations to wear down employees, often under the guise of perfectionism. Their behaviour may be framed as concern for quality but is rooted in distrust and dominance. Research by Fevre and colleagues links this pattern to high turnover and burnout, particularly among early-career professionals.

The serial offender is a repeat bully who targets multiple people over time. They often present as charismatic, which can mask their behaviour from leadership. Left unchecked, they can shape an entire team's dynamics around fear, and they are frequently responsible for a disproportionate share of an organisation's turnover, complaints, and grievances.

The cost of bullying

The toll of bullying extends well beyond the individuals directly involved. Targets often experience anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress, and reduced career confidence. A study by the Productivity Commission estimated the economic cost of bullying to Australian organisations at over $6 billion annually, due to lost productivity, absenteeism, and legal disputes.

The legal landscape

Under the Fair Work Act 2009 (Cth), workers can apply to the Fair Work Commission for an order to stop bullying. Employers are also required under work health and safety laws to eliminate or minimise psychosocial hazards in the workplace, which include bullying. The Model Code of Practice on Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work identifies bullying as a key risk factor that employers must proactively address.

Prevention and intervention

Preventing bullying requires more than policies on paper. Evidence from Australian and international research points to a combination of cultural, structural, and behavioural interventions. Anti-bullying policies need to define unacceptable behaviours clearly, outline complaint mechanisms, and ensure accountability, as Salin has argued.

Leadership plays a central role in shaping workplace norms, and training managers in trauma-informed supervision, conflict resolution, and emotional intelligence has been shown to reduce risk. Encouraging bystanders to speak up and support targets can also break the cycle: bystander training has been shown to shift team dynamics and reduce tolerance for bullying, as Paull, Omari and Standen have found. Finally, anonymous surveys and workplace climate audits help organisations detect hidden bullying patterns and inform prevention strategies before they escalate.

Building better workplaces

Bullying isn't just a personality issue, it's also a systems issue. Addressing it well requires organisations to look beyond individual conduct and examine the structures, incentives, and leadership behaviours that allow bullying to take hold and persist.

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Further Reading

Einarsen, S. V., Hoel, H., Zapf, D., & Cooper, C. L. (2020). Bullying and harassment in the workplace: Theory, research and practice (3rd ed.). CRC Press.

Paull, M., Omari, M., & Standen, P. (2012). When is a bystander not a bystander? A typology of the roles of bystanders in workplace bullying. Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, 50(3), 351–366.

Salin, D. (2008). The prevention of workplace bullying as a question of human resource management: Measures adopted and underlying organizational factors. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 24(3), 221–231.

Samnani, A.-K., & Singh, P. (2012). 20 years of workplace bullying research: A review of the antecedents and consequences of bullying in the workplace. Aggression and Violent Behavior, 17(6), 581–589.

Skogstad, A., Einarsen, S., Torsheim, T., Aasland, M. S., & Hetland, H. (2007). The destructiveness of laissez-faire leadership behavior. Journal of Occupational Health Psychology, 12(1), 80–92.

Safe Work Australia. (2022). Managing psychosocial hazards at work: Code of practice.