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Last updated: January 27, 2026
Key Takeaways
- What Bullying Looks Like: Workplace bullying includes repeated behaviors such as verbal abuse, exclusion, sabotage, micromanagement, and public humiliation, typically targeting one person over time.
- Mental Health Impact: Ongoing bullying commonly leads to anxiety, depression, chronic stress, sleep problems, and persistent fear about work, significantly undermining confidence and emotional wellbeing.
- Pattern, Not Conflict: Bullying is not a one-off disagreement but a sustained pattern of harmful conduct designed to intimidate, control, or diminish another employee.
- Severe Psychological Risks: Prolonged exposure can result in low self-esteem, social withdrawal, reactive depression, and in extreme cases, suicidal thoughts or behaviors.
- Employer Responsibility: Preventing bullying through clear policies,
leadership training , and open communication is more effective and less costly than addressing damage after harm occurs.
Workplace bullying can have a detrimental impact on your mental health and confidence, making it challenging to know where to turn for help and support. It is normal to feel uneasy about confiding in someone at work, especially when the situation is intense and complicated, and you face it daily.
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Workplace Bullying
- Verbal Abuse: This includes yelling, insulting, or using harsh language to belittle or intimidate an employee, often in front of others, creating a hostile work environment.
- Exclusion: Deliberately isolating an employee from
team activities,meetings , or social events, making them feel unwelcome and undermining their sense of belonging in the workplace. - Spreading Rumors: Circulating false or malicious gossip about an employee damages their reputation and relationships with colleagues, leading to a toxic work atmosphere.
- Micromanagement: Excessive control and scrutiny over an employee’s work, undermining their autonomy and confidence, and creating a stressful and oppressive work environment.
- Unreasonable Workloads: Assigning an employee an excessive amount of work or unrealistic deadlines, setting them up for failure, and increasing their stress levels.
According to the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), more than two million workers in the United States alone are victims of workplace violence each year, leading to millions of dollars lost in employee productivity.
- Public Humiliation: Criticizing or ridiculing an employee in front of their peers, damaging their self-esteem and professional reputation, and creating a culture of fear.
- Withholding Information: Intentionally keeping crucial information from an employee, hindering their ability to perform their job effectively and setting them up for mistakes.
- Sabotage: Deliberately undermining an employee’s work or success by tampering with their projects, spreading misinformation, or taking credit for their achievements.
- Physical Intimidation: Using physical presence or gestures to threaten or intimidate an employee, creates a sense of fear and discomfort in the workplace.
- Unfair Criticism: Regularly giving unwarranted negative feedback, focusing on minor mistakes while ignoring accomplishments, to diminish an employee’s confidence and morale.
What is the concept of workplace bullying?
Bullying in the workplace is a disruptive and targeted behavior that occurs on the job. It can manifest as sarcasm, insults, teasing, or intimidation. This behavior often forms a pattern and is typically directed at one person or a small group.
Effect of Workplace Bullying On Mental Health
Anxiety and depression are two common symptoms as a result of workplace bullying. Whether you’ve been bullied or witnessed someone else being bullied, you’ve seen personally how much turmoil it can bring to other’s lives.
Genuine fear sets in as the individual frets over what will happen tomorrow, and in certain situations, the victim is scared to go to work.
Poor attendance by certain victims may contribute to anxiety disorders, depression, and failure to fall asleep, all of which have psychiatric repercussions beyond the bullying’s effect.
A chronic ‘low mood’ may grow as a result of persistent abuse, leaving the survivor vulnerable to depression. This type of depression is defined as reactive depression,’ because it is brought about by activities that occur outside of the victim’s control.
Suicide is also becoming more common. Unfortunately, depression may cause patients to isolate and lose interest in the subject that they previously loved. Some people are reluctant to go out at all because they are terrified of being in the same place where the abuse occurs.
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All of this will lead to a mindset that seeing the light at the end of the tunnel is impossible.
Bullying may also have the following psychological effects:
- Thinking and dreaming about work all the time, even though you’re not at work regretting work and wishing you could sit at home needing more time off to heal from exhaustion
- lose interest in activities you used to enjoy
- Suicidal Thoughts
- low self-esteem, self-doubt, or asking if the teasing was all in your head
How Employers Can Respond?
Since prevention is much more cost-effective to action or therapy, it is generally in benefit to address workplace discrimination and create a bullying-free environment. When you care for your colleagues, it’s just the best thing to do. Check out https://www.safetytalkideas.com/workplace-safety-tips/guide-on-what-to-do-about-workplace-harassment/ on how to Handle Harassment in your Workplace.
Since the bulk of workplace discrimination is perpetrated by bullying bosses, companies must provide educational resources for administrators, managers, and other superiors. Rather, aspire to build a workplace that fosters collaboration, engagement, and constructive contact.
This book raises awareness on incidents of harassment and gives tips on handling this illicit conduct in the workplace.
Further Guidance & Tools
- Know Your Rights: Use EEOC Harassment Guidance to understand what legally counts as harassment and how employer liability is evaluated.
- Spot the Patterns: Use APA Office Bullying Tips to recognize bullying behaviors and apply practical steps that reduce escalation and protect well-being.
- Manage the Stress: Use NIOSH Stress at Work for evidence-based guidance on reducing job stress and addressing harmful working conditions.
- Support Coworkers: Use OSHA Outreach Materials for practical resources on respectful conversations, listening
skills , and connecting people to appropriate support.
The definitive guide to working with -- and surviving -- bullies, creeps, jerks, tyrants, tormentors, despots, backstabbers, egomaniacs, and all the other assholes who do their best to destroy you at work.
Next Steps
- Document: Keep a factual log of incidents including dates, witnesses, exact language used, and impact on your work.
- Get Clarity: Review your employee handbook and reporting channels so you know the formal process and documentation expectations.
- Build Support: Identify a trusted colleague, HR contact, or mentor who can help you sanity-check events and back you up.
- Set Boundaries: Use calm, direct language to name the behavior, state expectations, and redirect conversations back to work outcomes.
- Escalate Smartly: Report through appropriate channels with organized evidence, and consider outside advice if internal options feel unsafe or ineffective.
Final Words
Workplace bullying thrives in silence and confusion, but it loses power when you recognize patterns, document facts, and use the right support channels. Protecting your mental health and confidence matters as much as protecting your job performance. With clear boundaries, credible resources, and steady escalation when needed, you can push for a safer, more respectful workplace.
This critical resource gives managers, HR, and anyone who may come into contact with someone in trauma—including workplace violence, harassment, assault, illness, addiction, fraud, bankruptcy, and more—the tools they need to be prepared for what lies ahead.
Mark Fiebert is a former finance executive who hired and managed dozens of professionals during his 30-plus-year career. He now shares expert job search, resume, and career advice on CareerAlley.com.
