Unfortunately anyone can be at risk of being bullied and/or harassed, so preventing and reporting bullying and harassment is everyone’s responsibility.
Everyone has the right not to be bullied or harassed at work. Bullying and harassment can be extremely harmful and have a negative effect on workers’ health, workplace culture, individual and team work performance, productivity, organisational reputation, and budgets.
There are National anti-bullying laws and state or territory health and safety bodies help people with bullying and harassment in the workplace. In QLD, Workplace Health & Safety provide guidance and tools to assist with bullying.
Bullying happens when someone in the workplace repeatedly behaves unreasonably towards another person or group of people and causes a risk to health and safety in the workplace. This behaviour doesn’t have to be related to the person or group’s characteristics and adverse action doesn’t have to have happened.
The Fair Work Act 2009 specifies that bullying occurs when two criteria are met:
- a person or a group of people repeatedly behaves unreasonably towards a worker or a group of workers at work, and
- the behaviour creates a risk to health and safety. This behaviour must occur repeatedly, that is more than once, and must create a risk to health and safety in order for it to be considered bullying.
Bullying behaviour may involve any of the following types of unreasonable behaviour:
- aggressive or intimidating conduct
- belittling or humiliating comments
- spreading malicious rumours
- teasing, practical jokes or ‘initiation ceremonies’
- exclusion from work-related events
- unreasonable work expectations, including too much or too little work, or work below or beyond a worker's skill level
- displaying offensive material, and/or
- pressure to behave in an inappropriate manner.
Behaviour is unreasonable if a reasonable person might see the behaviours as unreasonable in the circumstances.
Some workers think that they are being bullied when they are being performance managed at work.
Your manager can make decisions about poor performance, take disciplinary action, and control the way work is carried out. This management action, if carried out in a reasonable way, is not bullying.
Talking to a trusted person may assist you to make sense of your perception of being bullied.
What to do if you think you are being bullied
If you think that you are being bullied at work, you should talk to:
- a supervisor or manager
- a workplace health and safety representative
- the human resources department
- a union or industrial organisation, and/or
- Nurse & Midwife Support.
To understand how your workplace deals with bullying and harassment, read the:
- policy and procedure on prevention of bullying and harassment
- organisational values, and
- grievance and disciplinary policy and procedure.
Experiencing bullying and/or being harassed at your workplace can be extremely distressing and harmful to your physical, emotional and mental wellbeing.
It can be subtle, direct or indirect in nature and raise many complex, challenging and often destructive behaviours, especially if you are a victim or you have witnessed a colleague being bullied. It can be hard to make sense of it.
Trying to understand the behaviour of a bully can be confusing. It could make you feel vulnerable, ashamed and alone. Emotions can be heightened and responses can start to be programmed to react on ‘fight or flight’ mode.
Feeling alone, shamed, isolated and unsure about how or where to access appropriate, confidential support can add to an individual’s distress.
No matter what form bullying and harassment takes is it is unacceptable and is not tolerated. It is important that you know how and where to access your organisation’s policies and procedures on prevention of bullying and harassment.
Code of conduct
Bullying and harassment
When people repeatedly and intentionally use words or actions against someone or a group of people, it causes distress and risks their wellbeing. Nurses/midwives understand that bullying and harassment relating to their practice or workplace is not acceptable or tolerated and that where it is affecting public safety it may have implications for their registration. Nurses/midwives must:
a. never engage in, ignore or excuse such behaviour
b. recognise that bullying and harassment takes many forms, including behaviours such as physical and verbal abuse, racism, discrimination, violence, aggression, humiliation, pressure in decision-making, exclusion and intimidation directed towards people or colleagues
c. understand social media is sometimes used as a mechanism to bully or harass, and that nurses/midwives should not engage in, ignore or excuse such behaviour
d. act to eliminate bullying and harassment, in all its forms, in the workplace, and
e. escalate their concerns if an appropriate response does not occur.
Bullying and harassment is not usually a matter for the NMBA and the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency (AHPRA). However, if bullying and harassment is at a level where patient safety is being risked or care is being compromised, you can speak to AHPRA about making a complaint.
What can I do next?
Contact Nurse & Midwife Support,
a free and confidential support 24/7 for nurses, midwives and students Australia wide. If you would like to speak to someone call 1800 667 877.
Contact your Nurses Professional Association of QLD (NPAQ). Our member support team are by your side to resolve workplace bullying and harassment. Call 1300 PH CODE or email firstname.lastname@example.org.
Article contributed by: https://www.nmsupport.org.au