PurposeThis paper aims to investigate employee reports of workplace bullying in which participants argue that poor management of bullying led to a range of health problems, both physical and mental.Design/methodology/approachA constructivist approach is adopted to develop an understanding of individual experiences of bullying. Qualitative research interviews are used as the method of data collection and focus is on individual participants as the unit of analysis. Data are analyzed using thematic analysis in which both deductive and inductive themes are developed.FindingsFindings suggest that lack of or poor workplace bullying policies impacts are used negatively on employee health. Specifically, analysis of employee reports suggest that the inability to successfully report bullying, or have bullying complaints taken seriously leads to ongoing implications for the individual.Research implicationsFuture research needs to focus further on examining reasons why some organizations do not develop and implement anti‐bullying policies, as well as further investigate the characteristics of bullying cultures so that effective interventions can be developed and health issues associated with bullying minimized.Originality/valueThis paper contributes to workplace health practice by providing insight into the risks that poor bullying management can have on the health of employees. It is proposed that such consequences could lead to an increase in litigations in the event that employees demonstrate that organizations have not provided a duty of care. Finally, the paper argues that organizations that do not attempt to prevent bullying may inadvertently contribute to the long‐term development of organizational cultures that tolerate harassment and abuse.

Globalisation and decreasing government labour market involvement have wreaked havoc with the concept of what we once thought of as 'traditional' or 'standard' employment. The increasingly dynamic nature of the workforce provides organisations with a complex new array of challenges. This paper examines the professional agency contractor workforce as an example of these challenges. We investigate the notion that the initial factors associated with the individuals move into contracting continue to exert considerable influence in sustaining the individual's ability to successfully remain working this way. The research findings support this notion and the results are discussed in terms of the management implications for organisations wishing to retain, maintain and sustain a workforce of professionals employed as contractors.A key feature within a world of work characterised by escalating change is the increasing number of individuals falling outside the standard view of a worker as a male, in a full-time stable job of an indefinite duration (Connelly and Gallagher 2004;Hall 2006). Within this trend, the professional contract whitecollar workforce has been identified as a significant area of growth (see for example Ashford, George and Blatt 2007;Davidov 2004). This paper presents results from one part of a much broader research project investigating the contracted professional workforce (see McKeown 2003McKeown , 2005.By synthesising common themes from studies of the broader non-standard workforce, we explore how the push and pull factors associated with the initial move into contracting assist in retaining and sustaining individuals as contractors as well as the impact these factors have for the ongoing relationship with the organisations engaging their services. We investigate the relationship

In this paper we investigate the evolution of occupational health and safety (OHS) legislation aimed at harnessing workplace bullying. We begin with a brief discussion of workplace safety and literature covering workplace bullying. Then we present an overview of the development of Australian OHS legislation in recognising the influence of psychosocial hazards such as bullying. Following this we examine the Fair Work Commission's anti-bullying jurisdiction which commenced on 1 January 2014. We argue that while the new anti-bullying laws are a welcome response to the problem of workplace bullying, they offer a minimalist rather than a comprehensive remedy to the problem. We conclude that the only way to provide an adequate response is to create stand-alone legislation that recognises bullying as a criminal offence with remedies sufficiently castigatory to act as a deterrent to would-be workplace bullies and prompt proactive workplace cultural change.

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