Bullying behaviour at work has serious consequences on the organisation's culture and your employee's mental health. It seems that workplace bullying may be triggered by poor working conditions. Research shows role conflict, workload, and lack of social support are related to bullying behaviour at work. For example, very poor working conditions may create stress reactions and feelings of frustration where some employees may display poor performance or rudeness. These reactions can fuel retaliation by their co-workers and superiors.

Workplace bullying behaviour is a complex issue and why people are targeted is an ongoing theme for research. Bullying victims report long-term psychological and physical health changes. For these employees, bullying includes the spreading of rumours and repeated insults aimed at changing the image of the victim that results in feelings of guilt, shame and diminishing self-esteem. 

For this podcast, we discuss some of the more recent research to identify how workplace bullying affects employee mental health and what it means for your business. We suggest the primary, secondary and tertiary anti-bullying interventions that organisations can draw on to prevent workplace bullying, support victims and reduce the long-term effects.