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13-17 November was National Anti-Bullying Week 2023. It’s an annual event coordinated by the Anti-Bullying Alliance charity, which aims to raise awareness of bullying among young people. The week emphasises prevention and effective responses to bullying.

The theme this year was “make a noise about bullying”. The aim of the week was to encourage people to speak up when they see bullying take place, recognise the hurt bullying causes and to stop dismissing it as “just banter”.

Sadly, as many of us can attest, bullying doesn’t end when we finish school. Bullies can be in our workplace, our personal lives and everywhere in between.

What’s bullying?

There’s no legal definition for bullying, but ACAS (the advisory, conciliation and arbitration service) describes it as unwanted behaviour from a person or group that’s either:

• offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting; or
• an abuse or misuse of power that undermines, humiliates, or causes physical or emotional harm to someone.

It might be a regular occurrence or a one-off. It may happen face to face, online or through gossip and rumours. It may be overt, or it may be more insidious and under the surface.

Bullying is no different to abuse, in my opinion. It exists because there’s a power imbalance between the abuser and the victim, and the abuser takes advantage of that imbalance.

Bullying can be classed as harassment if the offending acts towards a person or group relate to any of the protected characteristics (age, gender, race, religion, disability, sexual orientation, gender identity, etc.).

Regardless of whether the bullying is harassment/discriminatory or not, severe bullying could contribute to an employee resigning and raising a claim for constructive dismissal. Constructive dismissal is where an employee resigns because of a fundamental breach of the contract by an employer. This breach could be the implied term of mutual trust and confidence between employer and employee. However, the bar for this is set very high, particularly for a breach of implied terms, so it’s very difficult to prove.

From a personal standpoint

I’ve experienced bullying from previous colleagues and managers. A lot of it has been rooted in ableism and ignorance of autism, autistic people and our experiences. The bullying has included hurtful words, invalidating what I need in order to be at my best, and threatening me with dismissal, because I wasn’t at the level of another colleague who’d been employed in the role for longer.  

This behaviour and these words have caused me a great deal of shame and humiliation, violated my dignity at work and made me resentful, closed-off, untrusting and traumatised. It wasn’t until 2021 that I found out why I was feeling like this − post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). This has had a real impact on my employment experience because I haven’t felt like I’ve been able to engage with all facets of employment. Instead, I’ve spent my time at a lot of workplaces scared, hypervigilant and waiting for something to happen. This is one example of the impact that bullying at work can have. Trust me, it sucks! 

But it often goes unreported

As many as two in five people experience bullying at work but, upsettingly, only three in eight of those people choose to report it. Why is this? Some reasons include:

• fear of not being believed/validated;
• lack of faith in the grievance process, maybe they’ve been ‘burned’ before;
• not believing anything will change or be done; or
• fear of retaliation/further victimisation.

How can we as a profession encourage more people to report instances of bullying? A lot of it starts with the culture of the workplace and the profession itself. Law’s a demanding profession, but that doesn’t mean anyone should accept bullying or harassment of any kind. High demands and expectations are no excuse for bullying at all!

There’s the need to continue contributing to creating a workplace and professional culture that’s unaccepting of toxic behaviour in all forms, and one where everyone feels safe to:

1. be themselves and not feel like they need to hide themselves; and
2. speak up about toxic behaviour that’s affecting them or their colleagues/the workplace.

We’re all responsible for creating this culture in our workplaces and in the profession.

Further, the fees for a litigated claim are high − court fees, solicitors’ fees, counsel’s fees, etc. − and the damages pay-outs are fairly modest. It’s rare that more than £5,000 is awarded in claims of constructive dismissal, which is a common dissuasion for an employee bringing a claim to the employment tribunal.

What can we do?

We, as representatives of our profession, have a collective responsibility to contribute to a professional environment that’s safe, inclusive, and values each and every member, including the next generation. Not just managers and HR staff – all of us.

Things we can do when we see or hear about bullying include:

• call it out when you see it – for an observer, it may be uncomfortable, but I guarantee you’ll feel less uncomfortable than the person being bullied. For the victim, only if you feel safe to do so;
• training and awareness – make sure to include lived experiences so that staff get a real picture of the impact of bullying; or
• raise it with HR/senior management (informally or in a grievance).

The affected person could simply resign, but it’s unlikely that the problem would ever be solved this way. There’s every chance that staff who’re experiencing bullying at work will likely withdraw from their role and not feel like they’re able to give their best. So, it’s in everyone’s best interest to stamp bullying out of the workplace so that everyone can feel safe and valued. In a safe workplace staff will want to go above and beyond for an employer that truly has their interest in mind.