When the Bully Reports to You

What is upward bullying?

We tend to think workplace bullying only flows one way, from the boss down. But a job title isn’t the only source of power at work, and sometimes the person being worn down is the manager.

This episode grew out of conversations with friends about highly capable women who seem to quietly step away from the workforce in their mid-fifties and beyond. Their reasons were all different: redundancy, ageism, fierce competition for senior roles, and sometimes just being done with other people’s behaviour. One thread kept catching my attention. The difficult behaviour wasn’t always coming from above.

There’s a name for it: upward bullying. To unpack it, I’m joined by Dr Sara Branch from Griffith University, who has spent more than two decades researching workplace bullying, including the kind that runs up the org chart.

“Bullying is all about power and it’s the misuse of power.”

Dr Sara Branch

In this episode we talk about

• What upward bullying is, and why it’s still bullying even when the target is the boss
• The informal power staff can hold: information, expertise, networks and who you know
• How going over a manager’s head, gossip and “mobbing” can push someone out
• How grievance processes built to protect people can be turned into weapons
• The fine line between legitimate disagreement and bullying behaviour
• Why so many managers ask “is it me?”, and the shame that keeps them quiet
• Gender, age and why some experienced women decide it’s not worth it
• What to do first if something at work doesn’t feel right
• Why a policy and a once-a-year training session aren’t enough

Key takeaways

• Bullying is about power, not position.A manager can be bullied from above, from peers or from below.
• Trust your gut.If something feels off, start writing it down: what happened, when, and what didn’t add up.
• Don’t carry it alone.Find one person you genuinely trust to talk it through. Silence is a bully’s best ally.
• Organisations need to recover, not just respond.Moving the problem elsewhere or rewarding the behaviour sends a message to everyone watching.
• Tick-box training doesn’t fix it.Real change works across individuals, teams and the whole organisation, before, during and after an incident.