Bullying and harassment in the workplace can take many forms, including verbal aggression, personal attacks, and other intimidating or humiliating behaviors. If workplace bullying and harassment is not addressed, it can lead to lost productivity, anxiety, and depression.
A worker is bullied and harassed when someone takes an action that he or she knew or reasonably ought to have known would cause that worker to be humiliated or intimidated.
Examples of behaviour or comments that might constitute bullying and harassment include verbal aggression or insults, calling someone derogatory names, harmful hazing or initiation practices, vandalizing personal belongings, and spreading malicious rumors.
There are different types of bullying and types of bullying behaviors.
Bullying can be physical, verbal or relational/social (e.g. excluding someone from a peer group, spreading rumours).
Common bullying behaviours fit in two main categories:
Examples of these behaviours are described in Table 1 below.
Some of these behaviours may also fall under other types of behaviour such as discrimination or violence.
If you are a worker and you have witnessed or experienced bullying and harassment in your workplace, you must report it to your employer.
Employers must implement procedures for responding to reports or incidents of bullying and harassment. The procedures must ensure a reasonable response to the report or incident and aim to fully address the incident and ensure that bullying and harassment is prevented or minimized in the future.
Developing and implementing procedures for how the employer will deal with incidents or reports of workplace bullying and harassment must include the following:
In addition to establishing procedures, employers are responsible for ensuring they are followed.
Workers are expected to cooperate with investigators and provide any details of acts of bullying or harassment they have experienced or witnessed