Bullying on Site: What the Research Actually Shows (and What to Do)

“That’s just banter, mate.” Every apprentice has heard some version of that line — usually right after something that didn’t feel like banter at all. The tricky part of first-year life on the tools is that nobody hands you a clear line between “normal industry stir” and something that’s actually bullying. This guide draws on the largest study of its kind in Australia to show where that line actually sits, and exactly where to go if you’re on the wrong side of it.

The short version (TL;DR)

• A 2021 Griffith University study of 1,483 Queensland apprentices — run with MATES in Construction — found 30.8% reported being bullied at work in the past six months.
• Around 1 in 5 scored in the “severe” range on a validated workplace bullying scale (the NAQ-R).
• Bullying was significantly linked to higher psychological distress, lower wellbeing, and apprentices being more likely to have suicidal thoughts.
• You’re statistically more likely to report bullying if you’re LGBTQI+, in your 2nd–4th year, work for a very large organisation, or are a plumbing apprentice — not just “the new kid.”
• First-year apprentices in the study described themselves as “at the bottom of the food chain” and often didn’t report it, out of fear of being seen as soft or making things worse.
• There’s a real difference between rough-edged banter and bullying, and knowing it matters — both for your own headspace and for calling it when you see it happen to someone else.

What the research actually found

This isn’t a “vibe” — it’s been measured properly. Researchers from Griffith University’s Australian Institute for Suicide Research and Prevention, working with MATES in Construction, ran focus groups with Queensland apprentices and then surveyed 1,787 of them in 2019 (1,483 usable responses) about their experiences on site.

The results, published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry in 2021:

• 30.8% of apprentices said they’d experienced workplace bullying in the past six months.
• 21.4% scored in the “occasional bullying” range and 20.0% in the “severe bullying” range on the Negative Acts Questionnaire (a standard, validated way of measuring bullying without just asking “have you been bullied?”).
• About 13% reported elevated psychological distress, and around 30% scored as having reduced wellbeing.
• Bullying was statistically linked to being in your 2nd, 3rd or 4th year (not just first year), working for a very large employer or a group training organisation, being in plumbing trades, and working in maintenance.

In the focus groups behind those numbers, apprentices described being “at the bottom of the food chain,” accepting poor treatment as just part of the culture, and — in some of the more extreme accounts — genuinely threatening behaviour from older tradesmen that had nothing to do with a joke. Several said there were days they didn’t want to go to work at all because of who they’d be working with.

Banter vs. bullying: where’s the actual line?

The apprentices in the study drew this distinction themselves, and it holds up:

• Banter is generally two-way, doesn’t target one person repeatedly, and doesn’t leave you dreading work. You can usually give it back, and everyone’s still mates at smoko.
• Bullying is repeated, one-directional, and designed to put you down or isolate you — humiliation in front of others, being set up to fail, having your gear or work sabotaged, threats, or being deliberately excluded or given the worst jobs as punishment rather than as part of learning the trade.

If you’re not sure which one you’re in, a rough test: would you be comfortable if a supervisor watched exactly what just happened? If the honest answer is no, it’s probably not banter.

Why this keeps happening

The researchers point to a few things stacking up at once: construction is a male-dominated industry with a strong “toughen up” culture, apprentices are structurally lower-status (newer, younger, less experienced, less job security), and a lot of workplaces still treat hazing as a rite of passage rather than a problem. None of that makes it okay — it’s just the honest reason it’s common rather than rare.

It matters because bullying isn’t a “harden up” issue — the same study found it’s directly tied to higher psychological distress and suicidal thinking in apprentices. If you want the full picture on support services, see our mental health support guide — MATES in Construction, Lifeline, Beyond Blue and TIACS are all free and built for exactly this.

What you can actually do about it

• Name it to someone outside the situation first. A mate, a parent, or one of the free lines in our support guide — talking it through with someone who isn’t in the workplace politics helps you work out if it’s bullying or just a rough day.
• Keep a simple record. Dates, what was said or done, who was there. You don’t need this to complain — you need it in case you ever do.
• Know who’s actually meant to help. Larger employers often have an HR contact or EAP; smaller ones may not, but your training provider, group training organisation, or apprenticeship support service usually has a pastoral care or complaints contact even if the site doesn’t.
• You can report it externally. Safe Work Australia’s state regulators (e.g. WorkSafe, SafeWork NSW) handle workplace bullying complaints, and your apprenticeship isn’t legally tied to staying silent about mistreatment.
• If you’re thinking about walking away from the apprenticeship over it, read Thinking of Quitting Your Apprenticeship? first — bullying is one of the more fixable reasons to leave a specific site without necessarily leaving the trade.
• If you see it happening to someone else, checking in with them privately afterwards (“that seemed pretty full-on, you right?”) is exactly the kind of thing the MATES in Construction peer-support model is built around — it doesn’t have to be a big dramatic intervention.

Frequently asked questions

Is this just a first-year apprentice problem?
No — the research found apprentices in their 2nd, 3rd and 4th years were actually more likely to report bullying than first-years, not less. It’s not something you simply age out of by “putting your time in.”

Does reporting bullying put my apprenticeship at risk?
Reporting mistreatment isn’t the same as reporting a workplace issue like a safety breach — but it can feel that way when it’s your direct boss involved. That’s exactly why external options (training providers, apprenticeship support services, state work-safety regulators) matter: they’re not the same people signing off your apprenticeship.

What if it’s “just” constant put-downs, not physical stuff?
That still counts. The research measured bullying using a scale that includes being humiliated, ignored, or having your work belittled — it doesn’t need to be physical or dramatic to be real, and it doesn’t need to be “bad enough” before it’s worth talking to someone about.

Where do I go if it’s affecting my mental health, not just my work?
Start with our support guide — MATES in Construction (1300 642 111) is built specifically around construction industry workers and takes calls that aren’t crisis-level too.

This guide is general information only — not legal or medical advice. If you’re in immediate danger, call 000. Figures cited are from peer-reviewed research; always check current entitlements and workplace rights with the official sources below.

Sources:
Ross, V., Mathieu, S.L., Wardhani, R., Gullestrup, J., & Kõlves, K. (2021). Factors Associated With Workplace Bullying and the Mental Health of Construction Industry Apprentices: A Mixed Methods Study. Frontiers in Psychiatry, 12:629262.
MATES in Construction
Suicide rate context: Suicide trends among Australian construction workers during years 2001–2019, Scientific Reports.