Updated: 18 February 2025
New Zealand has a pretty woeful record when it comes to bullying in the workplace.
Recent research by Massey University found just over 90% of employees had experienced some form of bullying in the past year, with nearly a quarter of workers suffering monthly bullying.
Under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, workplace bullying is considered a risk to health and safety and all employers are legally obliged to take all reasonable steps to eliminate the risk to workers (if the risk can’t be eliminated, it must be minimised so far as is reasonably practicable).
Bullying causes serious mental and physical harm - it disrupts the workplace, damages morale, and reduces productivity. It can lead to personal grievances and in some circumstances – for example, if physical harm is caused – bullying can be a crime.
Every business needs to take bullying very seriously. Despite legislation, the statistics prove that it is still prevalent in too many of our workplaces and we all need to make efforts to turn it around.
If someone comes to you and says they have been bullied or have witnessed others being bullied at work, you first need to be clear about what constitutes bullying.
WorkSafe NZ defines workplace bullying as “repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or a group of workers that can lead to physical or psychological harm.”
The key words here are “repeated” and “unreasonable”. The behaviour isn’t a one-off incident; it is repeated behaviour that a reasonable person would see as unreasonable in the circumstances.
If that isn’t clear enough, rulings by the Employment Relations Authority (ERA) add that there should be evidence that alleged victim/s felt fear or distress or that the alleged perpetrator/s deliberately intended to cause fear or distress, which includes implied action, such as verbal threats.
In the eyes of the ERA, bullying action or speech aims to assert dominance or gain power over another and there is generally an imbalance in power between the two parties. This doesn’t limit it to bosses or managers bullying their staff, however. An employee can bully a manager, or it could happen between co-workers, customers, or visitors.
Bullying can be direct and personal, or it can be indirect and task-related. Examples of the former include making belittling remarks, ignoring or excluding someone, shouting or yelling at them, and/or persistently criticising them. Examples of task-related bullying can include giving someone an impossible workload or tasks to complete, withholding or concealing information that they need to do their job, repeatedly interrupting them or refusing to let them make their point, and demoting or reducing their responsibilities at work.
The repeated nature of bullying makes it extremely damaging. On a personal level, bullying has been proven to harm people’s well-being in many ways, from increasing anxiety, stress, and burnout to causing serious physical or mental health issues, such as depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and even suicidal behaviour.
It’s not just the victim; witnesses and bystanders can also be affected by the hostile work environment, and the cumulative impacts on the business can be significant.
A report by the Human Rights Commission Te Kahui Tika Tāngata estimated the average cost to employers for every worker impacted by bullying and harassment was $1,618, adding up around $1.5 billion a year across the nation, due to increased employee leave, decreased work performance, higher turnover, and time spent on addressing complaints.
Add to that the damage to company reputation and public image, which can further hamper the ability to attract and retain talented workers and harm overall profitability. It's no surprise the International Labor Organization identified workplace bullying as one of the greatest threats to business success.
Workplace bullying has a damaging effect on employees, overall workplace culture, and profitability.
Every New Zealand employer has a legal obligation to take all reasonable steps to keep employees safe and free from bullying, harassment, and discrimination at work (failure to provide a safe workplace by not managing bullying breaches this obligation, and could lead to personal grievance claims).
While bullying may be difficult to totally eliminate, you should take steps to minimise the likelihood of it occurring at your workplace. This starts with a positive company culture that promotes respect and understanding among employees and actively involves all team members.
Work together to create clear guidelines around what represents acceptable and unacceptable behaviour at work, so all staff and managers understand what bullying looks like.
Every company should have a bullying and harassment policy (either stand-alone or as part of your health and safety policy). The policy should define the rights and obligations of employees and managers and document how your business will work to prevent bullying and how you will respond to any issues.
An effective workplace bullying policy should clearly cover these elements:
There should be a clear escalation process so everyone knows what to do if they want to raise an issue. If there is no clear internal process or people don’t feel comfortable making a complaint (quite possible in a company with only a few employees), then they have a right to seek external help, e.g. from a union, lawyer, Citizens Advice Bureau etc.
Having a zero-tolerance policy always needs to be matched with practice. Bullying in any form shouldn’t be accepted as a normal part of the job. It shouldn’t be swept under the rug or forgiven in the belief it’s a hard-nosed style of management that’s good for performance and productivity.
Bullying isn't effective performance management and effective performance and issues management never involves bullying.
If you need help with strategies to identify and prevent bullying at your workplace, the WorkSafe NZ website is a good place to start.
The MyHR team can help you draft policies, review practices, and support you and your team with managing any bullying concerns or complaints if they arise.
If you receive a bullying complaint from one of your employees, the first thing to do is to acknowledge it and meet with the person (known as the “complainant”) - this can be done in person, over the phone, or on a video call.
Check to see if there is anything they need right now to feel supported at work, ask if there is anything that they would like to do while you look into and respond to their complaint (e.g. work from home for a period of time), and understand what they would like to happen as a result of their complaint.
This last step is critical. Sometimes employees want the person they’ve accused of bullying fired immediately, and are surprised to hear that there is a process to follow before any decisions can be made. On the other hand, sometimes employees don’t want to go “on the record”, and just want to make their boss aware of the behaviour.
This can be particularly tricky to manage - as an employer, you need to respect the complainant’s privacy, but you can’t unlearn what you’ve learned, and it can be hard to prevent this from affecting your judgment and beliefs about the person who’s been accused of bullying behaviour (the “respondent”). Likewise, the respondent has a right to know what has been said about them, and to present their side of the story.
If an employee makes a workplace bullying complaint, but “doesn’t want this to go any further”, seek legal advice before deciding how to proceed.
Once you’ve decided to look into the complaint, decide whether you want to bring in an external workplace investigator to look into the matter. These are licensed professionals who have experience running workplace investigations, and will be able to impartially and professionally investigate the matter and provide you with a full report at the end of the process.
This can be an appropriate step if you’re a large organisation that has the resources to engage these professionals; if the complaint itself is very serious, complex, or takes place over a long time period; or if your company policy requires it.
For most small businesses, it’s impractical and expensive to engage a workplace investigator, and you may choose to look into the matter yourself. Make sure that the person leading the investigation is as impartial as possible, has no connection to the bullying complaint, and is provided with professional support as they proceed.
When investigating, put aside preconceptions and stay as objective and open-minded as possible. Keep in mind that witnesses and the respondent may also need support. You are not running a criminal investigation and both parties need to be given the opportunity to present their version of events (if physical harm has been caused, however, call the police).
Taking notes will create a record, improving objectivity and reducing hearsay or potential conflict of opinions.
Once you have all the information in front of you, decide what you think has happened “on the balance of probabilities” (i.e. given all the circumstances, what you think is most likely to have happened).
Accusations of bullying can be hard to prove. Sometimes, there’s a fine line between acceptable and unacceptable management and personal interaction, especially in a busy workplace. Perceptions and context are important too.
Remember, bullying is about repeated and unwelcome behaviour towards another person or people - it isn’t necessarily about what the respondent intended or what they thought they were doing.
Whatever you do, don’t try to brush complaints off as something insignificant. Employers who don’t take bullying allegations seriously and don’t follow proper, transparent processes can find themselves in the Employment Court.
If the allegations against the respondent are upheld, you will need to take remedial action, which may be a combination of:
Even if the respondent is well-liked, successful, or holds a senior position, the ongoing harm they can cause to your employees and business is far greater than any benefit they may bring to the organisation.
Once you have addressed an issue, make sure you continue to follow up and check that the resolution has been effective and everyone feels supported.
Get advice on how to handle employee complaints against a co-worker.