31 Workplace Bullying Survey Questions

Employee Experience Survey Questions About Direct Bullying

Sample questions

1. In the past 12 months, have you experienced repeated behavior that felt intimidating, humiliating, or threatening at work?

2. Have you been unfairly targeted with criticism that was harsher than what others received for similar work?

3. Have you been excluded from meetings, communications, or decisions in ways that negatively affected your job?

4. Have you experienced persistent gossip, ridicule, or verbal aggression from a coworker or manager?

5. Did the behavior negatively affect your stress, confidence, or ability to perform your work?

This bullying questionnaire focuses on what people actually lived through, not just what policies call it.

Why & When to Use

Use this bullying survey when you want to learn whether employees have personally experienced harmful behavior at work.

It fits especially well for anonymous pulse checks, post-incident climate assessments, and teams where turnover, complaints, or tension are running a little too hot.

Here’s the thing: this survey should be framed around the employee’s direct experience.

That means your bullying and harassment investigation questions should describe specific behaviors instead of relying only on labels like "bullying" or "harassment," because people interpret those words differently.

Plus, include a clear time frame such as the past 6 or 12 months so responses stay focused and easier to compare.

To get more honest answers, explain the privacy setup before employees begin the bullying questionnaire.

• State whether responses are anonymous

• Clarify who will review the results

• Explain how findings will be reported in summary form

On top of that, this is not the same as workplace bullying interview questions used in follow-up conversations with specific employees.

If you later need questions to ask in a bullying investigation or more detailed workplace bullying investigation questions, that comes after the survey, not inside it. Think of the survey as the flashlight, not the full detective movie.

Research supports behavior-based workplace bullying surveys: the 22-item NAQ-R measures specific negative acts without using the term “bullying” (ScienceDirect).

Manager and Leadership Behavior Survey Questions

Sample questions

1. Does your manager address conflict fairly and consistently across team members?

2. Have you felt singled out, undermined, or publicly embarrassed by a supervisor?

3. How comfortable would you feel reporting bullying involving your manager?

4. Does leadership model respectful behavior even during performance or disciplinary conversations?

5. Have you seen managers ignore, excuse, or reward bullying behavior from high performers?

This bullying survey helps you spot whether leadership behavior is feeding the problem instead of fixing it.

Why & When to Use

Use this bullying questionnaire when you want to assess whether supervisory behavior is contributing to bullying, retaliation fears, or a hostile work environment.

It works especially well in manager effectiveness reviews, upward feedback cycles, and post-complaint monitoring, when you need clearer signals about how power is being used.

Here’s the thing: employees are often far less candid when the concern involves a manager.

That is why confidentiality matters so much in bullying and harassment investigation questions tied to leadership behavior, because nobody wants honesty to become tomorrow’s awkward one-on-one.

Plus, report manager-specific trends separately whenever possible so patterns do not get buried inside broader team results.

You can make the findings more useful by comparing this bullying survey with related indicators like:

• turnover rates

• absenteeism trends

• employee relations complaints

• escalation patterns across teams

On top of that, some responses may overlap with workplace harassment survey questions, especially when misconduct involves protected characteristics or sexual harassment.

If that happens, the survey helps flag risk, while hostile work environment investigation questions or workplace bullying investigation questions belong in the follow-up process, not the survey itself.

Bystander and Witness Survey Questions

Sample questions

1. Have you witnessed repeated teasing, humiliation, or exclusion directed at a coworker?

2. When bullying behavior occurs, do employees step in, report it, or stay silent?

3. Have you seen retaliation against employees who raised concerns about mistreatment?

4. Do coworkers appear afraid of certain individuals because of aggressive or intimidating behavior?

5. How often do you observe managers or peers dismissing bullying as a personality issue?

This bullying questionnaire helps you catch patterns witnesses can see long before a formal complaint lands on your desk.

Why & When to Use

Use this bullying survey when you need to understand what bystanders and witnesses are noticing across a team.

It is especially useful in team diagnostics, culture audits, and departments where intimidation rumors are everywhere but formal reports are mysteriously scarce.

Here’s the thing: many bullying patterns are visible to others before the person targeted feels safe enough to speak up.

That makes bystander-focused bullying and harassment investigation questions a smart way to move beyond relying only on direct victim reports.

To get better data, ask about observed behavior instead of guessed motives.

For example, workplace bullying interview questions and questions to ask in a bullying investigation should focus on what people saw, heard, or experienced firsthand, not mind-reading nobody actually signed up for.

Witness responses can help validate patterns across teams and strengthen a broader bullying questionnaire or bullying survey used for climate assessment.

Plus, leave space for open-text examples so people can describe what happened without feeling forced to name names right away.

That often gives you more useful detail, especially when reviewing:

• repeated public criticism

• social exclusion or group pile-ons

• retaliation after concerns are raised

• silence or inaction from peers or managers

On top of that, if witness comments suggest protected-class concerns, related workplace harassment survey questions may be worth adding in follow-up.

A 2025 U.S. survey found 64.5% of employees witnessed workplace mistreatment in the past year, supporting bystander-focused questions on observed behaviors and repeated incidents (PubMed).

Reporting, Response, and Investigation Readiness Questions

Sample questions

1. Do you know where and how to report workplace bullying concerns?

2. How confident are you that reports of bullying will be handled promptly and fairly?

3. Do you believe employees are protected from retaliation after making a complaint?

4. Have you avoided reporting misconduct because you thought nothing would change?

5. Do you understand the difference between informal resolution, formal complaint review, and a full investigation?

This bullying survey shows whether your reporting process feels real to employees or just lives in a handbook collecting dust.

Why & When to Use

Use this bullying questionnaire to measure whether employees know how to report problems and trust your organization to respond well.

It works especially well after policy updates, training rollouts, or anytime low reporting makes you wonder if fear or confusion is hiding the real story.

Here’s the thing: if people do not trust the system, incident data gets weird fast.

Silence can look like safety when it is actually hesitation, doubt, or a very firm "no thanks" to a process employees think will go nowhere.

This section is not for gathering case facts.

Instead, it helps you assess confidence in the system, which is different from workplace bullying investigation questions or other bullying and harassment investigation questions used during an actual review.

Plus, you can get sharper insights by comparing results with:

• training completion rates

• policy awareness scores

• department or manager trends

• prior use of reporting channels

If trust scores come back low, take action quickly.

For example, clarify reporting steps, retrain managers, simplify complaint options, and explain what informal resolution, formal review, and full investigation actually mean.

On top of that, if employees seem unsure about process fairness, your later questions to ask in a bullying investigation will not fix the bigger trust problem on their own.

Inclusion, Harassment, and Discrimination Overlap Questions

Sample questions

1. Have you experienced or witnessed bullying that appeared linked to race, gender, age, disability, religion, or another protected characteristic?

2. Do employees from all backgrounds receive equal respect and fair treatment on your team?

3. Have jokes, comments, or behaviors created an offensive or hostile work environment for certain groups?

4. Do you believe complaints involving discrimination or harassment are handled more seriously than general bullying complaints?

5. Have identity-related comments or stereotypes been used to isolate, demean, or intimidate employees?

This bullying questionnaire helps you spot when everyday mistreatment may overlap with identity-based harm, which is where the stakes climb fast.

Why & When to Use

Use this bullying survey when bullying may not be just bullying.

Sometimes the pattern also points to harassment, bias, or unequal treatment tied to a protected characteristic, and that changes how you should read the feedback.

It fits especially well in DEI assessments, hostile work environment reviews, and broader misconduct checkups where you want one bullying questionnaire to capture more than one kind of risk.

Here’s the thing: not every rude comment is unlawful, but repeated identity-linked behavior is not something to shrug off with a nervous smile and a fresh coffee.

Careful wording matters here.

You want space for employees to report general mistreatment, while also revealing whether certain groups are being targeted differently.

Plus, this section can complement bullying and harassment investigation questions later, but it is not the same as workplace bullying investigation questions or workplace bullying interview questions used in a live case review.

Use results alongside:

• DEI survey findings

• complaint and case trends

• exit feedback from underrepresented groups

• patterns by team, manager, or location

On top of that, use trauma-informed phrasing and give people room to skip questions if needed.

That usually gets you more honest answers than pushing for every detail all at once.

Best Practices for Writing and Running a Workplace Bullying Survey

Sample questions

1. What should you include before launching a bullying survey so employees trust it and actually respond?

2. How do you write bullying and harassment investigation questions without sounding leading or loaded?

3. What is the difference between a bullying questionnaire and workplace bullying investigation questions in an active case?

4. How can you protect anonymity while still explaining confidentiality limits clearly?

5. When should you use a bullying survey, and when should you switch to workplace bullying interview questions instead?

A smart bullying questionnaire is not just about what you ask, but how you ask it, when you ask it, and what you do next.

Why & When to Use

Use this section before you launch any bullying survey, bullying questionnaire, or survey questionnaire about bullying.

It gives you the practical framework that improves response quality, reduces confusion, and lowers legal or cultural risk.

Here’s the thing: a messy survey can create messy data, and messy data is about as useful as a paper umbrella in a thunderstorm.

Keep your approach simple and disciplined.

Do:

• Use behavior-based, neutral wording.

• Define the survey time frame.

• Protect anonymity and explain confidentiality limits.

• Include both scaled and open-ended questions.

• Separate culture measurement from formal fact-finding.

• Decide in advance how results will be reviewed and acted on.

Don’t:

• Ask leading or emotionally loaded questions.

• Rely only on yes/no responses for complex experiences.

• Promise total secrecy if follow-up duties may exist.

• Blur bullying, harassment, and performance concerns into vague wording.

• Run a workplace harassment survey questions set if leadership will not respond.

• Treat survey data as a substitute for questions to ask in a bullying investigation or other workplace bullying investigation questions in active cases.

Plus, if you need case-specific facts, use workplace bullying interview questions later, not your broad bullying survey.

How to Turn Workplace Bullying Survey Insights Into Action

Sample questions

1. How do you turn bullying survey results into clear next steps instead of a report that just sits there?

2. What should you look for when reviewing a bullying questionnaire by team, location, or manager group?

3. How do you prioritize issues found through bullying and harassment investigation questions or broader survey feedback?

4. When should survey results lead to manager coaching, policy updates, or formal workplace bullying investigation questions?

5. How can you share findings from a bullying survey without breaking confidentiality or losing employee trust?

A workplace bullying survey only matters if you use it to change what people experience at work.

Why & When to Use

Use this closing section when you are ready to move from measurement to action.

It works best as the final wrap-up because it reminds you that collecting answers is step one, not the victory lap.

Here’s the thing: your bullying questionnaire should help you spot patterns, not decorate a slide deck.

Start by reviewing results for hotspots.

• Compare responses by team, location, department, or manager group.

• Look for repeat themes in comments, not just low scores.

• Flag places where people report issues but do not trust reporting channels.

Next, prioritize what needs attention first.

• Focus on severity, frequency, and whether employees feel blocked from speaking up.

• Treat high-fear, high-repeat patterns as urgent.

• Use formal questions to ask in a bullying investigation when survey data points to specific misconduct.

Plus, match actions to the problem.

• Use manager coaching for tone, communication, and team habits.

• Update policy language if rules are vague or outdated.

• Add bystander training when people see problems but stay silent.

• Trigger formal workplace bullying interview questions or workplace bullying investigation questions when facts suggest a live case.

On top of that, share high-level findings with employees so they can see movement, not mystery.

A bullying survey builds trust only when leaders respond visibly, consistently, and without disappearing like socks in a dryer.