Workplace Bullying & Harassment: What It Is - and What helps prevent it.
Bullying and harassment are not “personality clashes”; they’re recognised psychosocial hazards that create real health and safety risks and legal exposure for organisations. Practical prevention and fair response are both required under Australian WHS laws. (Safe Work Australia, SafeWork NSW)
In my role supporting workers and their organisations to navigate bullying, harassment, and workplace conflict was one of my deepest commitment. These issues, sometimes called “mobbing,” “relational conflict,” or “toxic cultures” are not rare; in fact, they made up on average 30% of enquiries and complaints when I was leading the Qld Working Women’s Service. Behind every statistic was a worker grappling with fear, confusion, or exhaustion, and an organisation often struggling to respond in a fair and safe way.
What I learned is that addressing bullying is not just about enforcing rules, it’s about giving both workers and leaders the skills and structures to recognise early warning signs, intervene constructively, and prevent harm from becoming entrenched. Creating those pathways of support remains central to my work today.
What counts as bullying and harassment?
Safe Work Australia defines workplace bullying as repeated, unreasonable behaviour that creates a risk to health and safety; harassment includes a range of unlawful behaviours under anti‑discrimination and sex discrimination laws. Early prevention and quick response matter - the longer it continues, the harder it is to repair relationships. (Safe Work Australia, Australian Human Rights Commission)
When bullying turns collective: “mobbing”
Mobbing is group bullying - coordinated exclusion, criticism or hostility by multiple people towards one person. Australian research led by Dr Linda Shallcross documents severe health and career impacts and shows how informal power networks can escalate harm if leaders don’t intervene. Treat mobbing as a serious hazard requiring organisational - not individual solutions. (Griffith Research Repository, DeepDyve)
Employer duties - and worker options
In NSW, the Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work gives practical guidance: identify relational hazards (bullying, aggression, poor support), assess risks, implement controls, and review. It also stresses investigation competence and early control measures. Nationally, workers can seek Stop Bullying orders in the Fair Work Commission to prevent further harm (note: this jurisdiction aims to stop behaviour, not award compensation). (SafeWork NSW, Fair Work Commission, Safe Work Australia)
What works (evidence‑based)
Primary controls: clarify roles/decision rights; set and inspire respectful norms; design reasonable job demands; and embed worker participation. (SafeWork NSW)
Secondary controls: spot issues early; run brief, structured conversations; and use neutral facilitators. (SafeWork NSW)
Tertiary controls: keep worker support (care, adjustments, counselling) separate from fact‑finding (neutral, procedurally fair investigations). This preserves trust and credibility. (SafeWork NSW)
Voices from Working Women’s Centres (policy & parliament)
Working Women’s Centres have shaped national policy around bullying for years. Their submissions to the House of Representatives Inquiry into Workplace Bullying (2012) highlighted prevalence, barriers to reporting, and the need for clear prevention frameworks and early intervention. They later contributed to Safe Work’s model guidance on bullying (2013) and to parliamentary standards reforms (2022). Their submission to the AHRC Respect@Work Inquiry (2019) also pressed for a positive duty to prevent sexual harassment. (IRP, wwc.org.au, Australian Human Rights Commission)
Practical first steps for community organisations
Embedding Bullying Prevention into a Risk Management Framework
The SafeWork NSW Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work makes clear that bullying and mobbing must be managed like any other WHS risk - through structured, preventative controls. Organisations can adopt a risk management framework with the following practical steps:
Set Clear Standards (Primary Control): Publish a concise Team Charter outlining meeting respect, respectful feedback, and how to raise concerns. This establishes behavioural baselines that prevent conflict from escalating.
Identify and Define Hazards: Policies should go beyond general references to “bullying” and explicitly name behaviours such as mobbing - where groups target an individual through exclusion or hostility. Clear definitions reduce ambiguity, while outlining bystander responsibilities and leader accountabilities signals that preventing and addressing bullying is everyone’s role. This strengthens early recognition and helps create a culture where harmful behaviours are called out before they escalate..
Build Leadership Capability (Secondary Control): Train leaders in early-resolution micro-skills (e.g. curiosity questions, boundary-setting) and trauma-informed investigations. This equips them to respond fairly and with sensitivity before harm escalates.
Monitor and Review (Tertiary Control): Create a simple dashboard for the board or committee, combining leading indicators (e.g. civility, role clarity, workload balance) with lagging indicators (e.g. staff turnover, complaints). This ensures risks are reviewed at governance level and corrective actions tracked.
Work with me
I help organisations turn obligations into right‑sized systems: from policies and team charters to leader training and fair, trauma‑informed response pathways.
References
Safe Work Australia — Guide for preventing and responding to workplace bullying (national guidance). (Safe Work Australia)
SafeWork NSW — Code of Practice: Managing Psychosocial Hazards at Work (approved code; practical controls). (SafeWork NSW)
Fair Work Commission — Bullying (Stop Bullying orders) (worker pathway). (Fair Work Commission)
Shallcross, Ramsay & Barker — Australian research on workplace mobbing (qualitative impacts and organisational dynamics). (DeepDyve, Griffith Research Repository)
Working Women’s Centres — Parliamentary submissions: House of Reps Inquiry into Workplace Bullying (2012); Safe Work bullying code (2013); Joint Select Committee on Parliamentary Standards (2022); AHRC Respect@Work (2019). (IRP, wwc.org.au, Australian Human Rights Commission)