Psychological Harassment In The Workplace

Psychological harassment in the workplace is usually managed as a complaint to be investigated. Work health and safety law frames it differently, as a hazard the employer must identify and control.

The difference is timing. A complaint process starts when someone reports. A hazard duty starts before that, and requires you to look.

Applied here, that means asking where the conditions exist rather than waiting. Teams with unusually high turnover. Areas with one long-tenured manager and constant churn beneath them. Roles where a single person controls rosters, approvals or access. Places where nobody has ever made a complaint, which is not the same as nowhere anything happens.

Anonymous survey data and turnover by team tell you far more than an empty complaints register.

Safe Work Australia sets out the psychosocial duty. This is general information rather than legal advice, and obligations vary by state and territory.

See Sentrient’s online survey software and risk management system.