By normal definitions of work place bullying, it seems that all politicians engage in it all the time as a routine part of their job. It would be impossible to perform such and adversarial job without conduct that would ordinarily be considered bullying. People don't deserve special treatment for their gender, or because they cry, or because they get more easily upset than their peers. Not in politics.
Workplace bullying occurs when:
an individual or group of individuals repeatedly behaves unreasonably towards a worker or a group of workers at work,
AND
the behaviour creates a risk to health and safety.[1]
Reasonable management action conducted in a reasonable manner does not constitute workplace bullying.
Examples of bullying
Depending on the nature and context of the conduct, bullying behaviours can include:
the making of vexatious allegations against a worker
spreading rude and/or inaccurate rumours about an individual, and
conducting an investigation in a grossly unfair manner.[3]
In Amie Mac v Bank of Queensland Limited and Others[4] the Fair Work Commission indicated that some of the features which might be expected to be found in a course of repeated unreasonable behaviour constituting bullying at work were:
... intimidation, coercion, threats, humiliation, shouting, sarcasm, victimisation, terrorising, singling-out, malicious pranks, physical abuse, verbal abuse, emotional abuse, belittling, bad faith, harassment, conspiracy to harm, ganging-up, isolation, freezing-out, ostracism, innuendo, rumour-mongering, disrespect, mobbing, mocking, victim-blaming and discrimination.
The following behaviours could also be considered as bullying, based on cases heard in other jurisdictions:
