What Laws Protect Employees From Workplace Bullying?

Workplace bullying affects millions and can create toxic environments, impacting morale and productivity. While no federal law directly prohibits it, state-level initiatives and anti-harassment laws offer some protection.

By Brad Nakase, Attorney

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Table of Contents

1. What Does “Workplace Bullying” Mean?

2. How Is Harassment Different from Bullying at Work?

3. The Various Expressions of Bullying

4. Contributing Factors to a Dangerous Workplace Climate

5. When Is a Workplace Hostile?

6. Workplace Bullying and Its Consequences

7. Violence and Poor Conduct in the Workplace

8. What laws do HR leaders need to know about when it comes to bullying and harassment at work?

9. State Acts Prohibiting Bullying in the Workplace

10. Addressing Bullying in the Workplace

What Does “Workplace Bullying” Mean?

An increasingly common issue in today’s workplaces, bullying can take various forms, including what appears to be harmless teasing or a joke at first. The percentage of American workers who have experienced workplace bullying increased to 30% in a recent poll by the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), from 17% in a previous survey conducted only four years earlier. Nearly 48 million people experience workplace bullying.

Thankfully, there are a number of measures you can take to prevent your company’s culture from accepting or condoning harassment and bullying. However, before you do anything, continue reading to get the latest information on bullying in the workplace.

Bullying in the workplace occurs when an employee is subjected to harmful mistreatment on a regular basis by one or more other people. According to the Workplace Bullying Institute, it is abusive behavior that manifests as verbal abuse, actions deemed intimidating, threatening, or degrading, job sabotage, or any combination of these.

Here are a few further examples of bullying behaviors:

Criticism or pointing fingers without cause
Isolation from others
Keeping from getting the tools or data you need to complete the task
Spreading false information
Taking credit when it is not due
Threatening or intimidating behavior

Verbal abuse can take various forms, including but not limited to aggressive screaming and the use of profanity. Despite the widespread use of remote work during the pandemic, a shocking 43 percent of remote workers reported experiencing or seeing bullying on the job, according to the WPI.

How Is Harassment Different from Bullying at Work?

When someone’s color, race, faith, sex (including gender identity, pregnancy, and sexual orientation), national origin, age, handicap, or genetic information (such as family medical history) is used as an excuse to harass, abuse, or intimidate them, it becomes harassment and becomes unlawful. In everyday language, harassment is defined as unwanted actions or words said to another person in a way that makes them feel threatened, distressed, or disturbed. To be considered harassment, an action must be deliberate, repeated, and physically intrusive (invasion of space).

A workplace that allows bullying to persist swiftly loses its appeal, which in turn increases absenteeism, lowers morale, and reduces individual performance. It is expensive to recruit and keep top talent when the company culture is poisonous.

Actually, 63% of bullied workers missed work time and 48% purposefully reduced their job effort to avoid their harasser, according to a survey of 800 managers and employees across 17 sectors (Harvard Business Review).

If managers want to keep their workplaces safe and healthy, they must educate themselves on the issue of bullying and find solutions.

The Various Expressions of Bullying

Subtle acts of disrespect, such as picking on someone or making fun of them, are the building blocks of bullying. Keeping an eye out for these red flags can allow managers to catch improper behavior before it escalates.

The proliferation of online social networks, such as internal workplace chat rooms, has given bullies a new virtual tool to incite violence against their coworkers. Cyberbullying constituted 30% of all forms of workplace bullying in the 2020 Workplace Bullying Institute Survey. Bullying, according to experts, is a symptom of a more systemic problem: managers’ irrational fear of failing to meet expectations.

However, managers are not always the solution. While the majority of bullies in the WBI poll are in managerial positions, harassment and intimidation can occur not just within an organization but also from outside parties, such as consumers or clients. When bullying occurs, people typically choose to remain silent. Many are reluctant to speak up for fear of reprisal, termination, or inaction. Bullies are able to perpetuate their abusive actions because of this.

Contributing Factors to a Dangerous Workplace Climate

In her role as founder and chief executive officer of Civility Partners and a regular presenter on Paycor webinars, Catherine Mattice (MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP) identifies four types of harmful behaviors that toxic workers might display on the job:

The Downer: whining, criticizing, hard to please, and shutting down
The Better Than: continuously comparing oneself to others, name-dropping, showing off, grandstanding, and degrading others
The Passive: not giving advice or views, wasting time, delaying choices, feeling useless, not being direct, and talking around tough issues
The Aggressive: irritable, hostile, controlling, angry, hostile, unwilling to give in, persistent, rough

When Is a Workplace Hostile?

According to employment law, a hostile work environment develops when workers face persistent discrimination, harassment, or intimidation that hinders their ability to do their jobs. Harsh jokes or language, physical contact, sexually suggestive comments or images shown, and other behaviors that might embarrass or offend others constitute a hostile work environment.

Furthermore, when supervisors or management take part in the activities and expect others to do the same, it creates a hostile work atmosphere. It is your duty to promptly investigate allegations of harassment and bullying and implement measures to remedy the situation so that your workplace is not viewed as a hostile work environment.

Workplace Bullying and Its Consequences

Organizations and individuals alike can feel the reverberations of bullying in the workplace. Anxiety, despair, and panic attacks are common mental health difficulties among bullied individuals. Increased absenteeism and poor productivity might result from these mental health disorders. Bullying as a culture may also make the workplace unpleasant, which in turn increases employee turnover and makes it harder to find and hire new employees.

Violence and Poor Conduct in the Workplace

Although robbery and assault are the most common types of workplace violence, other types of intimidation such as harassment, bullying, and threats can also lead to violent incidents.

Every year, around 2 million American workers are said to be victims of workplace violence; however, it is very probable that many more incidents go unreported. In 2022, there was an 11.6 percent increase over the previous year, with 849 fatalities attributable to workplace violence and other injuries sustained by coworkers (761). Of the total number of fatalities, 524 were homicides, an increase of 8.9% over the previous year.

Bullies’ actions may make the workplace dangerous and unwelcoming for everyone. To many supervisors, bullying is dismissed as just ‘office politics’ and they do nothing when it happens. This indifference permits antisocial conduct to escalate, leading to more severe episodes, such as physical attacks, in certain instances. Consequently, upper-level management must be alert to bullying behaviors in order to prevent the problem from getting worse.

What laws do HR leaders need to know about when it comes to bullying and harassment at work?

Bullying may be considered harassment and subject to legal action if it targets a protected group, such as women or workers over the age of 40. However, no federal legislation expressly covers bullying.

Professor of law at Suffolk University in Boston and an authority on employment law, David Yamada, JD, has authored anti-bullying statutes that many states have passed. In his opinion, we are now in the same position as we were with the issue of sexual harassment thirty years ago: the term was just starting to be used, but people didn’t think about legal protections until they realized how bad it could be.

State Acts Prohibiting Bullying in the Workplace

There is currently no federal law that addresses bullying in the workplace; however, according to the EEOC, employees are protected from harassment in the workplace by Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act of 1967 (ADEA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA). However, some states are beginning to do something about stopping bullying before it turns into abuse.

With the help of the Workplace Bullying Institute, 32 state legislatures have introduced the Healthy Workplace Bill (HWB). No state has passed it into law just yet, although it is now being considered in the legislatures of three states: West Virginia, Massachusetts, and New York. On the other hand, several jurisdictions have passed legislation to prohibit bullying and harassment in the workplace and mandate training for employees.

Addressing Bullying in the Workplace

Companies have a problem with bullying in the workplace, and it’s smart for leaders to do all they can to stop it. To examine the company culture and identify any issues, an anonymous survey is an excellent starting point. The following should be considered while drafting a policy on workplace decorum:

A Clear Policy Against Bullying: Write a policy that describes bullying, gives examples, and explains how to handle it properly.
Reporting: Make sure your staff know how to report bullying in a secure and confidential way. Make sure that everyone is aware of and able to access these processes.
Inquiry and Disciplinary Actions: Explain how bullying reports will be looked into and what punishments may be given to bullies.
Create a Healthy Work Culture: Create a place where everyone feels welcome and respected. Make it easy for workers to voice their concerns and promote an environment of open communication.
Resources for Support: Make sure that your staff may easily access services like counseling and support groups. Instruct them on the best way to securely access these materials.

You can make these policies more successful by getting employee buy-in as you develop them.

Lastly, establish norms for proper conduct in the workplace by designing training sessions as part of the onboarding process for new employees or managers.

1. Ongoing Education

Focused Content: Show concrete instances of verbal, physical, and cyberbullying in the workplace in addition to raising awareness of the problem in general. To help employees learn how to recognize bullying and respond appropriately, incorporate role-playing exercises and situations into the training.

Reinforcement on an Ongoing Basis: Training should not be considered a singular event. Keep the subject fresh in everyone’s memory and up-to-date by offering periodic webinars, seminars, or refresher courses.
Individualized Instruction: Create training modules that speak directly to the needs of various types of employees, such as managers, supervisors, and individual contributors. Supervisors, for instance, would benefit from detailed instructions on how to respond to allegations of bullying, conduct investigations into such instances, and support victims.

2. Infrastructure Support

Create a safe space for employees to report bullying in a variety of ways, including an anonymous hotline, an online reporting system, or a dedicated HR representative.

Collaborate with mental health specialists or Employee Assistance Programs (EAPs) to provide confidential counseling services to those affected by bullying, whether they are victims or perpetrators. As a result, victims of bullying can learn to cope with the psychological and emotional toll it takes.

Employees who have been victims of bullying may benefit from joining a support group. People can feel comfortable opening up about their struggles, receiving encouragement from others, and gaining insight into effective coping mechanisms in these groups.

3. The Duty of Managers

Make your expectations of managers’ responsibilities in preventing and dealing with bullying crystal clear. As part of this, it is important to foster a supportive workplace culture, look into allegations of bullying quickly, and implement disciplinary measures as needed.

Managerial performance reviews should include the organization’s initiatives to combat bullying and address its aftermath. This makes managers answer for their actions and stresses the significance of a respectful work environment.

Give your managers the tools they need to combat bullying, resolve conflicts amicably, and foster an environment where everyone feels welcome and valued.

4. Staff Participation

Facilitate open dialogue about bullying in the workplace by making everyone feel welcome and supported so that victims may speak out without fear of reprisal.

To gauge how well anti-bullying policies are working, do frequent polls or focus groups with affected employees. You may use this input to figure out what needs fixing and then fix it.

Inspire your staff to join anti-bullying groups, launch awareness drives, or create peer support programs so that they can combat the issue on their own.

If you want to establish a positive company culture and make sure everyone knows what to do on the job, follow these steps. Ensuring the well-being and productivity of all employees is of utmost importance when it comes to addressing workplace bullying, as is meeting regulatory obligations. Companies can reduce the negative effects of bullying and increase workplace positivity and productivity by cultivating a respectful and inclusive work environment.

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What Laws Protect Employees From Workplace Bullying

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