By Katelyn Catanzariti

It can start with someone being short or uncivil but if left unchecked, workplace bullying can spread “like a contagion” to full-blown gaslighting or physical violence, a report warns.

Once certain harmful behaviours are accepted as the norm they can snowball into a systemic issue, says Flinders University workplace safety expert and report co-author Valerie O’Keeffe.

“We all have the capacity or the potential to undertake these behaviours if we are put in the right circumstances – if we are under extreme pressure, if we have a lot of personal trauma,” she told AAP.

“We all snap, we are all rude, and if we are being hassled by someone to work faster or harder, we all erode our pleasant behaviour and react. That’s what is essentially happening, but at scale.”

The highest proportion of serious mental health claims are attributed to work-related harassment and workplace bullying, Safe Work Australia says in a separate report on psychological safety.

The behaviour can be overt and obvious “events” such as physical or sexual abuse that are easier to identify and therefore manage, Dr O’Keeffe says, but the more insidious and “contagious” harmful behaviour can appear innocuous at first.

It starts with rudeness and disrespect, including gossip and innuendo, that erode a workplace culture to the point that people think it is acceptable.

“Then the level of disrespect starts to escalate … it works up to discrimination, it might be bullying, it might be physical assault,” she said.

“This incivility, if it goes on and on and on unchecked, it is a bit like gaslighting. People are unsure: ‘Did they mean that or not? Am I reading too much into it?’ It starts to erode people’s confidence.”

People returning to the office after years of working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in “an explosion” in reported bullying, according to Dr O’Keeffe.

Technological advances have also made an impact, with generational intolerance of older “dinosaurs” or younger “upstarts” playing a role in conflict.

Management need to jump on the lower-tier poor behaviour or risk more of their workforce becoming bullies, Dr O’Keeffe says.

“A lot of companies go on about how ‘our people are our best asset’ but they don’t walk the talk,” she said.

“Dealing with this stuff is good for business – it’s good for quality, it’s good for productivity. You’ll have workers that come engaged and motivated. And people who are treated well at work tend to go that extra mile now and then.”

Work friends, seriously who needs them?