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BUSINESS ENGLISH · BUSINESS ISSUES · UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

WORKPLACE
BULLYING

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1 Warm-up

What is bullying in the workplace? What examples of bullying can you think of?

2 Key words

Complete the definitions below:

allegation anxiety belittle berate ruling tribunal upheld

1. If you suffer from , you are very worried about something.

2. A is an official court or group of people whose job is to deal with a particular
problem or disagreement.
3. A is an official decision made by a court of law.
4. If a decision is by a court, the court agrees with it and accepts it as the correct
decision.
5. If you make an , you say that someone has done something wrong or illegal, but
there is no proof yet that this is true.
6. If you somebody, you say they are not very important or good.
7. If you somebody, you speak to them in an angry way.

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UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)

WORKPLACE BULLYING

3 Find the information

You are going to read about a case of workplace bullying at an Australian estate agency. Find the
following information from the text.

1. How many allegations of bullying did the victim make?

2. What health problems did she complain about that were a result of the bullying?
3. What incident started the bullying?
4. What incident took place just before she went on leave from work?
5. How long had she been bullied for?
6. Which different bullying behaviours are mentioned in the article?

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UPPER-INTERMEDIATE (B2-C1)
WORKPLACE BULLYING
Unfriending your colleagues on Facebook ruled bullying
Unfriending an employee ruled as part of ’bullying’ behaviour by employee tribunal
1.
Unfriending an employee on Facebook can in some
cases be workplace bullying, an Australian tribunal
has found.
2.
The ruling came after Rachael Roberts, an estate
agent in Launceston, Tasmania, complained to
Australia’s the Fair Work Commission that her
colleague Lisa Bird was bullying her, leaving her with
anxiety and depression. She made 18 allegations of
bullying in total.
3.
Ms Rachel said that following an argument about a
sale loss, her properties were no longer displayed
in the window, photocopies were distributed to
colleagues but not her, and she was no longer greeted
in the morning.
4.
When she approached Mr Bird, the head of the
agency and Mrs Bird’s husband, about the issues his
wife reportedly called her into a meeting and said
she was a "naughty little schoolgirl running to the
teacher".
5.
After this exchange in January 2015, Ms Roberts
found that Mrs Bird had unfriended her on Facebook.
She was then signed off work by a psychologist, Sky
News reports.
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6.
In a workplace bullying incident, the Fair Work
Commission must find evidence of "repeated
incidents of unreasonable behaviour", of which
unfriending Ms Roberts on Facebook was counted
as one. Nine other allegations were upheld by the
tribunal.
7.
The deputy president of the commission, Nicole
Wells, said in her decision that the unfriending
showed "a lack of emotional maturity" on Mrs Bird’s
part that had made Ms Roberts unwell.
8.
But employment lawyer Josh Bornstein told ABC
news the unfriending incident was found to be
workplace bullying in the context of other issues.
9.
"What the Fair Work Commission did find is that a
pattern of unreasonable behaviour, hostile behaviour,
belittling behaviour over about a two-year period,
which featured a range of different behaviours
including berating, excluding and so on, constituted
workplace bullying," he said.
10.
Under the Fair Work Act, the tribunal can order the
employer and employee to hold a meeting about anti-
bullying orders, but cannot impose compensation.
Adapted from The Independent, 25 September 2015, by
Jess Staufenberg
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WORKPLACE BULLYING

4 Checking understanding

Put T (True) or F (False) next to each of the statements below.

1. The estate agency wasn’t sympathetic to Rachael’s complaints.

2. Nine allegations of bullying were upheld by the tribunal.
3. One incident of bullying is enough for a tribunal to rule that there has been bullying in the workplace.
4. The Fair Work Commission couldn’t find any evidence of repeated bullying.
5. Unfriending somebody on Facebook is considered to be workplace bullying.
6. Rachael Roberts’ employer will have to pay her a sum of money after the tribunal hearing.

5 Find the words

Find a word or phrase in the article which means...

1. officially decided by a court of law (verb -ed, TITLE)

2. according to what somebody said (adverb, P4)
3. officially asked her to attend a meeting (phrase, P4)
4. given a medical certificate saying that someone is too ill to work (phrase, P5)
5. unfriendly (adjective, P9)
6. give someone an instruction that they must obey (verb, P10)

Give your own examples of these words/phrases.

6 Talking point

Discuss any of the points below.

1. Do you think unfriending someone on Facebook is workplace bullying?

2. Do you think Rachael was right to complain?
3. Have you witnessed workplace bullying?
4. Do you think employees might exaggerate the problem? Why?
5. Do you think workplace bullying affects business? How?
6. What measures do you think could prevent bullying in the workplace?

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