All kinds of workers are protected from bullying at work, including:
- employees
- freelance and self-employed artists and arts workers, and
- volunteers, unpaid interns and students on work experience.
Workplace bullying is:
- repeated and unreasonable behaviour
- that creates a risk to health and safety.
It does not have to be intentional.
It can be:
- perpetrated by an individual or a group of people
- directed at an individual or a group of workers.
Bullying is a work health and safety hazard that risks psychological and physical harm. Learn more about managing hazards and risks.
Reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable manner is not workplace bullying.
What is bullying
SafeWork Australia defines workplace bullying as ‘repeated and unreasonable behaviour directed towards a worker or a group of workers that creates a risk to health and safety’. Their Guide for preventing and responding to workplace bullying explains that:
- Repeated means that the behaviour is persistent. It may involve a range of different behaviours over time.
- Unreasonable means that a reasonable person would think the behaviour is unreasonable. A ‘reasonable person’ isn’t the same as the average person – an average person isn’t necessarily reasonable. A ‘reasonable person’ is one who has sound judgment and is fair and sensible.
Bullying behaviours include:
- abusive, insulting or offensive language or comments
- aggressive and intimidating conduct
- belittling or humiliating comments
- practical jokes or initiation
- unjustified criticism or complaints
- spreading misinformation or malicious rumours
- victimisation
- deliberately excluding someone from work-related activities
Bullying can also include:
- withholding information that is vital for effective work performance
- setting unreasonable timelines or constantly changing deadlines
- denying access to information, supervision, consultation or resources to the detriment of the worker
- setting tasks that are unreasonably below or beyond a person’s skill level
- changing work arrangements such as rosters and leave to deliberately inconvenience a particular worker or workers.
It’s not bullying if it is reasonable management action.
Remember: Violence is a police matter
It’s important to report any behaviour that involves violence (for example, physical assault or the threat of physical assault) to the police.
What does ‘at work’ mean?
This can get a bit technical and depends a bit on which law applies to the situation. But generally speaking, workplace bullying can happen:
- anywhere a person is doing work — including their regular workplace (art studio, rehearsal space, office, gallery, etc.) and any non-regular location (festival, touring venue, etc.)
- when working from home
- while a person is travelling as part of work — for example, on a tour bus, in a taxi or a group flight booking
- at work-related after-hours events — such as launches, industry events, and dinners where you are there in a work capacity
- online and via technology — including by phone call, text message, email and social media.
Learn more about what a workplace is.
We often think of a workplace bully as someone who is more senior to their victim, but anyone can be a bully – a co-worker, an employee or a patron. It’s the behaviour that matters.
Examples of bullying at work include:
- A box office attendant regularly receives aggressive emails from a regular patron
- A company dancer spreads false rumours about a lead dancer’s health status
- A managing editor repeatedly points out one editor’s proofreading errors in team meetings but not those of other editors
- A well-known performer frequently changes the time of the sound check without letting their back-up singers know then berates them for being late
- An author repeatedly changes an illustrator’s deadlines without notice and threatens to end the contract if the deadlines aren’t met
- A circus troupe excludes one of the acrobats from a WhatsApp group where they share informal work news and social chat
- The bartender at a comedy venue makes insinuations about a comedian’s personal hygiene habits every time she performs at the club
- Three board members consistently respond with sarcasm any time the recently appointed Chairperson asks the group to stay on topic.
Bosses can’t be bullied… can they?
They can. It’s less common, but it happens sometimes.
It can happen when traditional workplace power dynamics are reversed, including:
- if an artist or arts worker is particularly influential or revered
- if artists or arts workers band together to bully someone (this is called mobbing).
All the same rules apply. Workplace bullying is unlawful, regardless of the position you hold, and there are paths you can take to try and resolve it.
It is not bullying if —
If it’s reasonable management action
A worker may feel upset or stressed when an employer takes performance or disciplinary action – but if is reasonable management action carried out in a reasonable way, it’s not bullying.
An employer can take action if a worker is not doing their job well:
- to help the worker improve their work
- to address poor performance or behaviour
as long as the action is taken in a reasonable way.
The Fair Work Commission’s website has useful examples of what counts as reasonable management action which includes:
- starting performance management processes (such as a performance improvement plan)
- taking disciplinary action for misconduct
- telling a worker about work performance that is not satisfactory
- telling a worker their behaviour at work is not appropriate
- asking a worker to perform reasonable duties as part of their job.
Remember that these actions must be carried out in a reasonable way. If not, the behaviour could be bullying.
As an employer or manager, before taking any management action, it can be helpful to ask yourself:
- Have I been open and clear about what I expect from this worker?
- Am I applying these work standards consistently across all workers?
- If there are policies about this kind of thing at my workplace, am I following them?
- Will this action educate and inform the worker so they can improve or change? Or is it more likely to embarrass them or feel threatening?
In practice:
Marie is rehearsing a new show as a company dancer
The company director scolds Marie during rehearsal. Later, Marie recounts her day to her partner at home.
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I said flex. Flex! |
I said flex! (And sorry for losing my temper.) |
|---|---|
|
“At rehearsal today, I forgot for a moment that it was a flex and not a point. It happens, right? No one’s perfect, not even her. But she called me out in front of everyone and embarrassed me. “She never picks on the male dancers, or any of the new recruits. Everyone else makes mistakes too but she turns a blind eye. I know for a fact that she’s spoken to others quietly after rehearsal. It’s just me – it’s like I rub her the wrong way or something, and I get picked out in front of everyone.” This may be bullying. The director repeatedly treats Marie’s errors differently to others in the company in a way that is negatively impacting her. |
“At rehearsal today, I forgot for a moment that it was a flex and not a point. The director called me out in front of everyone. “She’s normally really patient with all of us. In fact, she did mention that she needed to finish rehearsal early because she had a personal matter to attend to. And she snapped at a few of us today. Maybe she was just having a bad day.” This is not bullying. The director’s behaviour is not repeated and isn’t targeted at Marie. |
If it’s not repeated
In order for it to be bullying, the behaviour must be repeated.
A single incident is not bullying — but it may be harassment or discrimination.
Even if an incident isn’t bullying, it doesn’t mean it was okay. Dealing with it can help prevent it from happening again and turning into bullying.
Learn more:
- about discrimination
- about harassment
If it’s a disagreement or difference of opinion
Artists and arts workers often engage with work that comes from a deep personal place or expresses a heartfelt response to something fundamentally connected to their values.
Understandably, disagreements or differences of opinion in artistic spaces can be challenging and upsetting and may feel targeted and personal. But they aren’t necessarily bullying.
People can have differences or disagreements in the workplace without engaging in repeated, unreasonable behaviour that creates a risk to health and safety.
It can be helpful to think of bullying as a negative behaviour directed by someone that exerts power over them versus conflict as a disagreement or argument in which both sides express their views. Conflict is a normal part of working life. Bullying is not.
It’s important to be mindful that ongoing conflicts can escalate to workplace bullying if not managed well. And just because something isn’t bullying (for example, because it only happened once) doesn’t mean it was okay. Talking about it can help prevent it from happening again.
There are lots of great resources available to support you to have difficult conversations. We like this information on having Difficult conversations from Mentally Healthy Workplaces.
In practice:
June and Kaye work in the marketing team at a musical theatre production company
They are working together on the promotional materials for an upcoming production.
June and Kaye are meeting to finalise the design of the promotional materials for their company’s next theatre production, which is opening next year.
They have agreed on everything except the final colour palette. June prefers an orange colour scheme because it invokes the sunset that features in a key scene. Kaye prefers red.
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I prefer the red colour scheme |
Why are you so obsessed with red? |
|---|---|
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June says to Kaye, “You are so obsessed with red. Is it your favourite colour or something.” Kaye replies, “I just think it works really well. The text pops and I think it looks better.” After an hour of discussion, they still can’t come to an agreement. They decide to ask the rest of the team what they think. The majority of the team like red. June says to Kaye, “Alright, you win, let’s go with the red.” This is not bullying. While Kaye and June disagree about their work, they are able to have a calm conversation about it, and to move on once the final decision is made. |
“I just think the red works really well,” Kaye says. “The text pops and I think it looks better.” After an hour of discussion, they still can’t come to an agreement. They decide to ask the rest of the team what they think. The majority of the team like red. June yells, ‘I don’t know why you’re so obsessed with red. You always want everything to be red, red, red. What is it, because you’re Chinese and it’s a lucky colour or something?” June storms off and ignores Kaye for the rest of the week. A couple of weeks later, June walks past Kaye’s desk and notices that she’s working on materials for a different production. As she walks past, she sighs and says, ‘Not red again. There are other colours you know Kaye.’ Later that day, when Kaye walks into the kitchen, June rolls her eyes, and says, ‘Well look who it is, it’s the red lady.’ This may be bullying. What began as a simple workplace disagreement escalated when June started yelling and storming off. |
How to deal with bullying in the workplace
Sometimes it’s not immediately clear what to do or who to speak to in your workplace if you think you, or someone else, is being bullied. It can even less clear if you are a freelancer or self-employed or if you are working in a collaboration with other artists.
We have information about:
- what to do if you think you are being bullied
- what to do if you see, or hear about, someone being bullied
- what to do if it is your role to respond to workplace bullying.
Learn more about how to deal with unacceptable workplace behaviour.
Where to go for help
If you think you are being bullied — There may be more than one option for getting help to try and resolve it.
It will be up to you to decide what course of action is the best one for you. What you choose to do will depend on where you are, whether the bullying is still happening, and what you want the outcome to be.
Find out about where to get help with unacceptable workplace behaviour.
If you’re not sure which action to take, there are organisations that can help you decide. Find out where to find support.
If you need help responding to bullying — There are various organisations that offer help and advice. Find out where to get support.
More in this section:
Unacceptable workplace behaviours
Bullying, harassment and discrimination are unacceptable in the workplace. Everyone deserves a workplace that is safe and respectful. There is help available when they are not.
Workplace harassment
There are laws in Australia that protect paid and unpaid workers from workplace harassment. There are extra protections against sexual and sex-based harassment, disability harassment and racial hatred.
Workplace discrimination
There are laws in Australia that protect people from discrimination in the workplace. There are anti-discrimination laws that apply to both paid and unpaid workers.
How to deal with unacceptable behaviour at work
This page sets out key steps for dealing with bullying, harassment or discrimination in creative workplaces. There is information for anyone who has experienced, seen or heard, or is responsible for responding to unacceptable behaviour at work.
Where to get help with unacceptable workplace behaviour
If you don’t feel safe asking for help in your workplace, or if you have gone through your workplace process but it hasn’t helped, there are a range of government agencies that can help with resolving the issue.
