Workplace Bullying and Intersectionality: The Complicated Reality

Organizations often treat workplace bullying and discrimination as separate problems. One is viewed as interpersonal conflict. The other is viewed as a compliance issue.

Employees do not experience them so neatly.

Someone who is repeatedly excluded from meetings, denied opportunities, publicly criticized, or stripped of credibility may also be experiencing racism, sexism, ageism, ableism, religious discrimination, or another form of prejudice. In these situations, bullying and discrimination can become intertwined, with bullying serving as one of the ways discrimination is expressed and maintained. 

The question is not just what one person did. The larger question is why the behavior is allowed to continue.

When Bullying and Discrimination Intersect

Workplace bullying and discrimination are not the same thing. A person can be bullied for reasons unrelated to a protected characteristic, and discrimination does not always take the form of overt prejudice.

Sometimes discrimination appears through a pattern of workplace behavior. An employee may be excluded from important information, denied opportunities, subjected to repeated criticism, or portrayed as incompetent despite evidence to the contrary.

Viewed individually, these incidents may look like ordinary workplace conflict. Viewed together, they may reveal how prejudice influences who is being mistreated, whose behavior is tolerated, and whose concerns are dismissed. 

This is why organizations should look beyond individual incidents and examine patterns. Are certain employees consistently marginalized? Are complaints handled differently depending on who raises them? Are some people given the benefit of the doubt while others are not?

An intersectional perspective can be helpful here. People do not experience their identities one characteristic at a time. A Black woman may encounter experiences shaped by both racism and sexism. An older employee with a disability may face assumptions related to both age and ability. These overlapping dynamics can influence how people are perceived, evaluated, and treated at work.

When Prejudice and Myside Bias Work Together

Prejudice and myside bias can reinforce each other in powerful ways.

Prejudice may shape an initial judgment about an employee. Myside bias then helps protect that judgment by encouraging people to focus on information that confirms what they already believe while ignoring evidence that challenges it.

For example, a manager who doubts a woman's leadership ability may treat a mistake as proof that she is unqualified while overlooking years of strong performance. If she raises concerns about bullying or sexism, those concerns may be dismissed as overreacting rather than evaluated objectively.

Once someone is labeled difficult, incompetent, emotional, or resistant to change, future events are often interpreted through that lens. 

Prejudice forms the judgment. Myside bias helps preserve it.

How Workplace Culture Encourages Participation

Workplace bullying rarely survives because of one person's actions alone.

Coworkers may participate by spreading rumors, excluding someone from discussions, reinforcing negative narratives, withholding information, or supporting decisions that undermine another employee. Others may simply accept the explanations used to justify the behavior.

When stereotypes are already accepted within a workplace, they can make mistreatment appear reasonable. An employee may be described as too emotional, too aggressive, too sensitive, or unable to fit in. Labels like these can shift attention away from the conduct itself and onto the person experiencing it.

This is why focusing only on individual prejudice is not enough. Organizations must also examine what employees gain by joining in and what they risk by speaking up.

The Role of Leadership

Leaders help shape workplace culture through everyday decisions.

They decide whose concerns are taken seriously, whose explanations are accepted, and whose behavior has consequences. In doing so, they communicate what the organization truly values.

Problems arise when leaders excuse mistreatment because someone is a high performer, has seniority, or holds influence. The same problem occurs when more attention is placed on the person reporting concerns than on the conduct being reported.

When evidence suggests that bullying and discrimination may both be present, separating them too quickly can obscure how prejudice, group participation, and authority reinforce one another.

Addressing the Culture That Sustains Both

Policies and training are important, but they are not enough on their own.

Organizations must examine how decisions are made, how complaints are handled, and whether assumptions about employees are supported by evidence or sustained by prejudice and myside bias.

Workplace bullying and discrimination can be sustained through formal policies, everyday decisions, and cultures that permit, excuse, or reward mistreatment. They are sustained by cultures that permit, excuse, or reward harmful behavior.

Creating healthier workplaces requires more than identifying individual bad actors. It requires examining the culture, group dynamics, and leadership decisions that allow both bullying and discrimination to continue. 

What does your workplace permit, excuse, or reward?

Explore Stop Bully Culture’s workplace training and leadership coaching to examine how leadership decisions can sustain—or stop—workplace bullying.