The Hidden Cost of Office Gossip: Navigating Australia’s New Psychosocial Hazard Laws

Host: Now, are you someone who loves hearing or, I don't know, maybe even sharing little stories, little bits of gossip about your co-workers? Because if you are, you might be in trouble. We saw an opinion piece in the Sydney Morning Herald today and it kind of suggests that office gossip—you know the classic stuff, 'you didn't hear this from me'—is effectively against the law these days. Because there are some new psychosocial hazard regulations in New South Wales, and across the country in fact, and it means that bullying and rumours and ostracism and malicious gossip, it can now trigger some real legal consequences, including fines for employers who don't step in to stop it. So here to help us understand what's actually changed and what is just, you know, gossip, we are joined now by Natasha Hawker, who is the Director of Employee Matters and an expert in workplace relations and conflict resolution. Natasha, good afternoon.

Natasha Hawker: Good afternoon Jess, how are you?

Host: I'm very well, thank you. For people that might be hearing this and thinking, 'Wait a sec, are they legislating against us having a casual chat at work or a, you know, a conversation about mutual people we know?' Like, what's actually changed under these psychosocial hazard laws?

Natasha Hawker: Yeah Jess, there's been a raft of employee relations changes under the first term of the Albanese government, one of which is called 'People at Work', and managing psychosocial risks falls under that. The issue that we've got is stats in Australia say that at least one in four Australians in the workplace at any one time will be suffering from a mental health condition or illness, and every employer in Australia now has a positive duty of care to manage psychosocial risks. So what that means in reality is you, as a management team or as a business owner, have to assess what your risks are, and then ask your employees what they think their risks are, and then mitigate those risks. So, not doing so could mean you face fines of up to $19,000 per breach for you as the manager for not providing that safe workplace, and potentially up to $90,000 per breach for the company. So it's pretty serious.

Host: Wow. So I think a lot of people imagine gossip as being kind of harmless chit-chat. But that is probably not the case if you're the target of it. What do you think harmful gossip looks like in a modern workplace?

Natasha Hawker: Yeah, and I think most of your listeners will have felt this at some point in their careers. It looks like whispers in the tea room, it could be text messages exchanged when you're not party to it, it could be work emails where employees are sharing gossip or, worse still, malicious rumours. And there was a recent case in 2023 where there was a lab technician at a pathology clinic, and they won a workers' compensation claim alleging that she had actually suffered a psychological injury after being bullied and harassed over unfounded rumours spread by others in the workplace that she was actually having an affair with her supervisor. Now, that supervisor then came and confronted her, Jess, and then said, 'Are you telling people that I'm your boyfriend and that you've contracted a sexually transmitted disease from me?' And so obviously then it got worse. Her supervisor actually assumed the responsibility for conducting the disciplinary meetings around the rumours, and that just, you know, exacerbated the stress and conflict. So it was really damaging for both parties.

Host: Yeah, it sounds awful. You mentioned a little earlier a lot of the consequences for companies that don't get this sorted in their workplaces. Like these rules that put the onus on employers—employers I should say. What are employers actually required to do to fix this in a correct way?

Natasha Hawker: Yeah, so first of all is doing that risk assessment. And many organisations in the past, you know, they put a policy in place and that was sufficient. Jess, it's not anymore. You actually have to do a risk mitigation exercise to say 'What do we think the risks are?' Once you've done that, you've got to work out what the risks are and then mitigate them. So that might be things like—and I think this should be a minimum—appropriate workplace behaviour training (what's appropriate in the workplace, what isn't), an EAP or an Employee Assistance Program (that's where people can get counselling as they need it), and policies. And my sense is here, Jess—and this is what I would shout out to any managers or business owners—is we're going to see an increase in compliance and fines and breaches for not providing that safe workplace. So what we're seeing is, I think the government went fairly easy on this legislation in their first term. I think we're going to see an increase in that in the second term. I know in our business, we're seeing way more investigation activity with our clients where they're coming to us saying, 'We need an investigation, something's happened.'

Host: Okay. What should an employee who is either being talked about, or maybe just seeing their co-workers indulging in some gossip about fellow employees... what should they do if they see it happening?

Natasha Hawker: Look, I think in the first instance, Jess, and if it's safe to do so, they feel safe to do so, they need to look to resolve that issue with the individual informally. You know, having a chat saying, 'Look, I've heard this, I'm sure this is not intentional, but you know, this really needs to stop, it's upset me.' Now, if that's either unsuccessful or you're not comfortable doing that, you should raise it with your manager or HR, if you've got an HR team. You do have the right to raise a formal grievance, which could be investigated confidentially, of course. And there are ramifications for breaches of that confidentiality for anyone who's out there going, 'Oh yeah sure, I don't want to let anyone know that I'm making this complaint.' And if it is bullying, then you can also raise an external complaint with Fair Work, who would investigate and they may instigate stop bullying orders, which means they are forced to stop that bullying in the workplace.

Host: I have one question for you that a listener has come up with while hearing us talk, Natasha. Chris is in Forbes, and he says, 'Who gets fined or where does the fine go if it's a government department that's being dealt with?' Like, does the supervisor get it? Does the head of department get it?

Natasha Hawker: No, it goes into the government coffers, into SafeWork, and I'm sure it's used for educational purposes so we get less of it.

Host: Right. Okay. Well, wonderful. Wait, wait, what about if the... sorry, I think like the government department is the one where the gossiping is happening, I think.

Natasha Hawker: Well, you can raise a complaint in there as well. You know, no one is immune to this. And I can share, even literally this morning, I was in a meeting and I spoke to a business owner and he said, 'This is what happened to me yesterday, a doozy. One of my employees came to me incredibly upset; one of his colleagues told him he was suicidal.' So the business owner dropped everything, into 'How do we resolve this?', spoke to the individual, and the individual said, 'Oh, I was only joking.' And you can only imagine the damage that that had for the business owner and also that employee. And now the business owner is sort of questioning, has this really happened? Is he really suicidal, or is he not suicidal and it was a joke? And we're wasting an enormous amount of productive time by dealing with these issues, especially if it was malicious.

Host: Yeah, and whispers and hearsay and all of that stuff. Yeah, look, it's been such a pleasure talking to you. Natasha Hawker has been our guest, she is the founder of Employee Matters. We'll have to get you back on the program, it's been a real delight.

Natasha Hawker: Happy to be there. Take care.