How do we define bullying in the workplace

New Zealand has the second-highest rate of workplace bullying in the developed world with one in 10 employees saying that they have experienced harassment, discrimination or bullying in the workplace.

 

Bullying is repeated health harming mistreatment by one or more people. It is unreasonable behaviour directed towards a single worker or a group of workers that can lead to physical or psychological harm. Repeated behaviour that is persistent, meaning that it is not just a one off incident, and can involve a range of actions.

 

Unreasonable means that a reasonable person would consider those actions to be unreasonable if they were in the same or similar situation. These can include things like victimising, humiliating, intimidating or threatening a person. Bullying may also involve violence.

 

This type of abusive misconduct should not be confused with non-workplace bullying activity such as one-off instances of rudeness, being set high performance standards, legitimate advice or reviews, reasonable requests for instructions to be carried out, a warning to keep an employee in line with a company’s code of conduct, a single incident of unreasonable behaviour and differences in opinion or views that do not escalate into bullying, harassment, or violence.

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