PurposeBullying is an uncontrolled incident in today's global workplace and widely recognized as a major issue that has to be explained, addressed and resolved, both from a research and management aspect. However, it has a devastating impact on teacher performance thus a need to study its impact is crucial and integral. The study's purpose is to look into the impact of workplace bullying (WB) on work engagement (WE), as well as the influence of emotional exhaustion (EE) and psychological distress (PD) as mediators. Further, the study analyzed the role of emotional intelligence (EI) as a moderator for teacher's psychological distress and work engagement.Design/methodology/approachA quantitative approach was employed using 63 items and a 7-point Likert scale questionnaire administered to 366 teachers working in schools located in Islamabad. Data has been collected with the time lag method. Confirmatory Factor Analysis is employed to estimate factors whereas Structural Equation Modeling is executed to test hypotheses by using AMOS-23.FindingsResults suggest that workplace bullying is significantly related to work engagement and this relationship is partially mediated by emotional exhaustion and psychological distress. Further, it confirmed the role of emotional intelligence as a moderator between psychological distress and work engagement.Research limitations/implicationsFirst of all, single-source data has been used (responses collected from teachers) which may raise issues regarding CMB thus, future studies might collect data at different levels for better generalizability. Secondly, the study is based on a convenience sampling technique thus the hypothesized model may not be generalized to the entire population. Thirdly, the study found four variables in total to measure the effect on work engagement, therefore, individual characteristics or personality traits can better capture the notion.Practical implicationsThe finding of the study would be helpful for the educational sector as they are playing an integral part in our society and such dilemmas need to be addressed with possible solutions.Originality/valueThis is one of the few studies which measure the mediator and moderator both consecutively in measuring workplace bullying and work engagement in the educational sector of Pakistan.