Workplace Bullying and Harassment: How to Recognise It and What to Do

Why New Workers Are Particularly Vulnerable

Starting your first job is exciting and often nerve-wracking. You want to make a good impression, prove yourself, and learn as fast as possible. This eagerness, combined with unfamiliarity with workplace norms and power dynamics, and the economic vulnerability of being new to the workforce, can make young adults particularly susceptible to workplace bullying and harassment. Many people in their first few jobs do not have a clear reference point for what normal workplace behaviour looks like, which makes it harder to recognise when something has crossed a line.

Workplace bullying and harassment are widespread problems globally. Survey data from multiple countries consistently show that significant proportions of workers have experienced bullying or harassment at some point in their careers, and younger and newer workers are overrepresented among victims. Understanding what constitutes bullying and harassment, what your rights are, and what practical steps you can take is important knowledge for anyone entering the workforce.

What Constitutes Workplace Bullying

Workplace bullying is typically defined as repeated, unreasonable behaviour directed at a worker or group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety. It is distinct from the normal management of performance, which may sometimes involve critical feedback, setting standards, and managing underperformance. The key elements are that it is repeated, it is unreasonable, and it causes harm.

Bullying behaviours in the workplace can include persistently criticising someone's work in a degrading or humiliating way, deliberately excluding or ignoring someone, giving someone meaningless or impossible tasks, spreading rumours or gossip about someone, undermining someone's work by withholding information they need, making threatening, belittling, or abusive remarks, and taking credit for someone else's work consistently. A single instance of poor behaviour may not constitute bullying, but a pattern of such behaviour over time does.

Workplace bullying can come from managers, supervisors, peers, or in some cases from subordinates. It is not exclusively a top-down phenomenon. Bullying by a manager, sometimes called power harassment, is particularly common and particularly difficult to address because of the power imbalance involved.

What Constitutes Workplace Harassment

Workplace harassment is related to but distinct from bullying. Harassment typically refers to unwanted behaviour that is related to a protected characteristic, such as sex, race, disability, religion, sexual orientation, or gender identity, and that violates someone's dignity or creates an intimidating, hostile, degrading, or humiliating environment. Most countries with developed employment law frameworks have specific legislation covering workplace harassment related to protected characteristics.

Sexual harassment is one of the most commonly discussed forms, and it encompasses a wide range of behaviours: unwanted physical contact, sexual comments or jokes, requests for sexual favours, displaying sexually explicit material in the workplace, and creating an environment where sexual comments or behaviour are normalised and expected to be tolerated. Sexual harassment is not limited to interactions between men and women and is not exclusively perpetrated by men.

Harassment based on race, religion, disability, or other protected characteristics operates similarly: unwanted behaviour that creates a hostile or degrading environment related to that characteristic. This can include derogatory comments, exclusion from opportunities, or an environment where prejudiced views are expressed and normalised.

The Impact on Young Workers

The impact of workplace bullying and harassment on young adults can be significant and long-lasting. Mental health effects including anxiety, depression, and post-traumatic stress are well-documented. Performance at work suffers, which can have consequences for career development. Confidence and self-esteem can be seriously eroded. Physical health effects, including disrupted sleep and physical manifestations of stress, are also common. And the impact can extend beyond the workplace, affecting personal relationships and overall quality of life.

Many young adults in this situation also fear that leaving a job or speaking up will have career consequences, which can cause them to tolerate situations far longer than is healthy. It is important to understand that tolerating bullying and harassment indefinitely is not a viable long-term strategy. The harm accumulates over time, and most situations do not improve without action.

What to Do If You Are Being Bullied or Harassed

The first step is keeping a detailed record. Document every incident with dates, times, locations, what was said or done, who was present, and the impact on you. This documentation is essential if you later decide to make a formal complaint. Save any written evidence such as emails or messages.

Confide in someone you trust, whether a colleague, a friend, or a family member. Having support makes the situation less isolating and gives you a reality check from someone who knows you. If your workplace has a confidential employee assistance programme or an occupational health service, these can also provide support and advice.

Consider whether to address the behaviour directly. For some types of bullying, particularly from peers rather than managers, calmly naming the behaviour and stating that it is unacceptable can be effective. For more serious harassment or where a significant power imbalance exists, direct confrontation is not always the safest or most effective option.

Familiarise yourself with your employer's policies on bullying and harassment. Most organisations of any size have a formal policy and a procedure for raising complaints. Using this procedure creates a formal record and requires the organisation to respond. You should be protected from retaliation for making a complaint in good faith under the employment laws of most countries with developed legal frameworks, though the reality of retaliation risk is something to be aware of.

If the internal processes do not work, or if you work in an environment without effective processes, external options include making a complaint to a national labour authority or employment tribunal, seeking advice from a trade union if you are a member or can join one, or consulting an employment lawyer about your options. Many employment lawyers offer free initial consultations.

Protecting Your Mental Health During the Process

Going through a process of reporting workplace bullying or harassment is stressful and emotionally draining. Taking care of your mental health throughout is important. This means maintaining connections outside work, taking your annual leave, using any employee assistance resources available to you, and speaking to a doctor or mental health professional if the impact is significant. Keeping a record of how the bullying affects you, including your mental and physical health, is both practically useful as evidence and a way of tracking your own wellbeing.

When to Consider Leaving

Sometimes, despite doing everything right, a workplace remains hostile and the situation does not improve. In these circumstances, leaving may be the best decision for your wellbeing and career. This is not failure. A workplace that tolerates bullying and harassment is telling you something important about its culture and values, and it is entirely reasonable to decide that you deserve a better environment.

If you do decide to leave, try to do so on your own terms if possible, with a new role secured before you go, and without burning bridges, which protects your references and professional reputation. But if the situation is seriously affecting your mental health, leaving and seeking support while you find something new is also a valid and sometimes necessary choice.