Long-term tension, belittling or psychological pressure at work can have serious effects. Find out what to do and where to look for support.

Tension at work is not always only the result of a demanding period or a bad atmosphere in the team. Sometimes it is a pattern of repeated behaviour that systematically hurts a person, weakens them, and gradually undermines their confidence, performance, and mental well-being. Workplace bullying is not always an open conflict. It is often subtle, long-term, and difficult to describe, because it may consist of repeated small attacks, humiliation, or disadvantageous treatment. Professional workplace guidelines describe bullying more as repeated and systematic behaviour than as a one-off incident; specific forms of it also include mobbing and bossing.

What Workplace Bullying Can Mean

Workplace bullying can take many forms. In some places it involves open belittling, while elsewhere it may look like ignoring, undermining, deliberate exclusion from the group, or long-term questioning of someone’s work and abilities. It may come from colleagues, from a supervisor, or from a group of people. Professional sources note that it can appear, for example, through exclusion, ignoring, unfair treatment, regular undermining, spreading harmful rumours, overloading a person with work, or humiliating them through emails, phone calls, or social media.

Mobbing and Bossing

In the work environment, the terms mobbing and bossing are also often used. Professional guidelines describe them as specific forms of workplace bullying. In practice, these terms usually refer to bullying from colleagues or a group of co-workers and bullying from a superior. But the core is the same: a person is exposed over time to behaviour that humiliates them, weakens them, or pushes them out of a safe working environment.

How Bullying at Work Can Show Up

It does not look the same for everyone. In some places it is loud and obvious, in others very subtle. It may involve repeated criticism without a factual reason, humiliation in front of others, belittling work, overloading someone with tasks, or on the contrary deliberately withholding information, excluding them from communication, questioning their competence, harmful rumours, irony, ridicule, or creating a long-term impression that the person “does not fit in.” Professional sources also remind us that bullying is not always easily recognisable to others and may happen in online communication or outside the office in other work-related situations.

Why It Can Be So Exhausting

Workplace bullying drains a person not only through what happens outwardly, but also through what it starts doing inside them. Tension, insecurity, hypervigilance, poorer concentration, fear of mistakes, sleep problems, anxiety, irritability, or the sense of losing ground under one’s feet are all common. European sources on psychosocial risks point out that these kinds of experiences belong among important workplace burdens with an impact on both mental and physical health. Health-related sources also state that bullying at work can lead to significant stress and psychological difficulties.

When It Is More Than Just “Bad Relationships at Work”

Not every tension or disagreement at work is bullying. But it is worth paying closer attention when the behaviour repeats, targets one person, creates long-term pressure, and affects mental well-being or work itself. Warning signs include going to work in fear, being completely exhausted after work, starting to doubt yourself, being afraid to speak up, having worsening sleep, concentration, or health, and no longer experiencing the work environment as safe. Professional sources clearly state that bullying can cause emotional as well as physical harm and that employers have a responsibility to address such issues.

What Can Help

What helps most is not keeping the whole situation to yourself. It can be useful to talk to someone you trust, keep notes about specific situations, stay as factual as possible, and look for support where the issue can be addressed safely. Practical expert guidance recommends, if it is possible and safe, first calmly and clearly naming what the behaviour is doing and what impact it has. If that is not possible or does not help, it may be appropriate to address the situation informally or formally through a manager, HR, or another internal mechanism. An employer should take every report of bullying seriously and investigate it without unnecessary delay.

When a Psychologist or Therapist Can Help

Psychological support makes sense when a person is already carrying the effects of bullying outside of work — living with long-term stress, anxiety, poor sleep, loss of self-confidence, or when the whole issue keeps returning in their mind even at home. A psychologist or therapist can help process the impact of the situation, restore greater confidence, name boundaries, and find a safer next step. For some people, it is important simply to allow themselves, perhaps for the first time, to admit that what they are experiencing is not “normal work pressure,” but something that is genuinely harming them. Professional health sources recommend seeking support if a person is struggling heavily with bullying at work or is developing mental health difficulties.

You Are Not Alone in This

Workplace bullying is a serious issue, and there is no need to excuse it by saying that “this is just how work is.” If a work environment is damaging your confidence, health, or peace over a long period of time, it deserves attention. A psychologist, therapist, or another form of professional support can be an important step not only in helping a person carry the situation better, but also in making sure they do not keep losing themselves in it alone. Professional sources agree that workplace bullying can have a significant impact on mental well-being and that such difficulties should be taken seriously and addressed in time.