There are conversations happening across Botswana right now that are uncomfortable. Depression. Workplace pressure. Toxic environments. Silence. And if we are honest – bullying. Let us say it plainly: workplace bullying is not a “personality issue”. It is a behavioural standard problem. It is a culture problem. And in 2026, it must become a non-negotiable.
This is not only a local concern. The Workplace Bullying Institute’s most recent national survey found that approximately one in three employees report having experienced workplace bullying at some point in their careers, and a significantly higher percentage say they have witnessed it. While the research was conducted in a specific national context, the patterns it reveals mirror trends identified in other international workplace and ethics studies.
Ethics and Dignity: The Line We Cannot Cross
Bullying is incompatible with dignity, and it is incompatible with ethical behaviour. No organisation can claim integrity while tolerating humiliation, manipulation, retaliation, or abuse of power. Ethics is tested when power is uneven. If a leader uses authority to diminish rather than develop, the issue is no longer interpersonal – it becomes moral.
This is where many workplaces get stuck. Bullying can be dressed up as “tough leadership”, “style”, or “just how they are”. But culture is not built by intention. Culture is built by what gets repeated and what goes unchallenged. If intimidation is ignored, it becomes normal. If public shaming is laughed off, it becomes embedded. If harmful conduct is excused because someone “delivers”, the organisation has quietly chosen results over ethics.
ISO 45003 and Psychological Health at Work
ISO45003 exists because psychological harm at work is a real risk that can be managed. ISO45003:2021 provides guidelines for managing psychosocial risks within an occupational health and safety management system. In practice, that means organisations should identify psychosocial hazards and mitigate them proactively, not only after damage is done. Bullying, sustained intimidation, and harassment are psychosocial hazards. A workplace cannot credibly claim psychological health and safety while allowing repeated intimidation, humiliation, or retaliation to continue unchecked.
Positive High Performance vs Toxic High Performance
We also need to be honest about performance. There are cultures that hit targets and still break people. There are environments that produce numbers through fear, pressure, and silence. That is not excellence. Toxic “high-performing” cultures may deliver short-term outcomes, but they accumulate long-term human and reputational debt – and that debt eventually shows up.
In positive high-performing cultures, performance is sustainable because it is built on clarity, accountability, trust, and psychological safety. Standards are high, but respect is non-negotiable. Feedback is direct, but not demeaning. Authority is used to build capability, not crush confidence. That is what a conducive workplace culture looks like: disciplined and safe.
Bullying Is an Economic Risk
Bullying is not just a culture issue. It is an economic risk. It drives turnover, increases recruitment and onboarding costs, raises absenteeism, and weakens productivity through fear-based compliance. It suppresses innovation because people stop speaking up. It slows execution because mistakes get hidden instead of surfaced early. It undermines service because employees cannot pour into customers when they are constantly in survival mode internally.
It also creates “silent organisations” where misconduct is known but not challenged. The Institute of Business Ethics’ 2024 Ethics at Work Survey, conducted with 12,000 employees across 16 countries, found that 32 percent of employees were aware of bullying and harassment, yet many do not report wrongdoing, often due to fear of retaliation or the belief that nothing will change. When speaking up feels dangerous, culture becomes a risk factory.
What To Do When You Encounter Toxic Leadership Traits
If you are encountering toxic leadership traits, start by naming the behaviour and refusing to normalise it. Keep a factual record of incidents and impact. Use the most formal reporting route available to you, and seek support early. If internal processes repeatedly fail, take that as a serious signal about the environment and protect your wellbeing and career accordingly.
If you witness bullying, remember that silence becomes part of the structure. You do not need dramatic confrontation to shift the moment. Refuse to laugh at humiliation, interrupt harmful tone calmly, and check in with the targeted person privately. Make sure you are not confusing firmness and delivery expectation with bullying. Encourage the use of formal channels. Culture changes when ordinary people stop covering for harmful behaviour.
If you lead people, your responsibility is heavier. Do not outsource this to HR and call it “handled”. Make behavioural standards explicit, train leaders to give feedback without humiliation, and enforce consequences consistently regardless of rank or results. The real test of leadership is how you use power when someone is junior, vulnerable, or afraid.
A Non-Negotiable Moving Forward
Bullying is incompatible with ISO 45003. It is incompatible with high performance. It is incompatible with dignity. It is incompatible with ethics. The question is not whether bullying exists in workplaces. The question is whether it is being tolerated. And tolerance has a cost that shows up in wellbeing, organisational performance, and productivity.
Conducive workplace cultures are not “soft”. They are disciplined. They protect standards and people at the same time. If we want workplaces that drive service, innovation, and sustainable results, intimidation cannot be part of the operating system. The era of normalised bullying must end – firmly, systemically, and without exception.
If your organisation is ready to assess behavioural risk, strengthen leadership accountability, and align with psychological health and safety standards, reach out to us at team@peopleinterface.com.
