Being called “a bully” by staff is not proof that you bullied them, your employer still has to find out what they mean.
“Unfair dismissalA legal claim you can bring if your employer dismissed you without a fair reason or without following a fair process. You normally need two years of continuous employment to qualify, though some dismi... upheld; conduct did not amount to bullyingRepeated, unreasonable behaviour towards you at work that undermines you or damages your dignity, such as persistent criticism, exclusion, humiliation, or intimidation. Bullying on its own is not auto...; compensation reduced 25% for contributory conductContributory conduct is blameworthy behaviour by you that a tribunal finds actually contributed to your own dismissal. It can reduce your compensation even where the dismissal itself was unfair, and u....”
An accusation of "bullying" has to be backed by specific examples your employer actually investigates, not just a label staff have used.
- If you are accused of bullying, ask whether the complainants were asked for specific examples of what they meant, and request that detail yourself.
- You are entitled to precise particulars of what you are accused of before a disciplinary hearingA formal meeting at which your employer sets out the allegation against you and gives you the opportunity to respond before any decision is made. You have the right to be accompanied by a colleague or..., not a vague invitation to discuss "some of the allegations."
- Contributing to a difficult atmosphere at work is not the same as bullying. A tribunal can find your conduct played a part without finding you bullied anyone, and that distinction affects both the fairness of any dismissal and any reduction to compensation.
The situation
After 19 years with the company, a pharmacy manager was suspended when, during a visit by a regional manager, staff spontaneously said "everything was wrong," called him "a bully," and said people were leaving because of him. Witness statements described him testing new starters' maths and chemistry knowledge in front of colleagues, being rude to sales representatives, and contributing to a poor atmosphere in the pharmacy, which some staff put down as much to being short-staffed as to his management style. He was summarily dismissed for bullying, and his appeal was rejected.
What the tribunal found
The tribunal found the dismissal both substantively and procedurally unfair. The process that followed his suspension was, in substance, never a proper investigation. Staff who had used the word "bully" were never asked what they meant by it, or for specific examples. At his disciplinary hearing, he was simply asked to talk through "some of the allegations" without ever being given precise details to respond to. On the substance, the tribunal held the employer had no reasonable basis for concluding he had actually bullied anyone: at most, it could reasonably have found he had poor management and customer-handling skills that needed addressing, not that his conduct amounted to bullying. The tribunal found the real cause of the poor atmosphere was a mix of short-staffing and his "robust management style," and that the most a reasonable employer could have done was issue a final written warningA formal sanction one step below dismissal, usually issued for a serious matter or where a written warning is already live. A further disciplinary matter during the live period will typically result i... alongside coaching or mediation, not dismiss him. It did find, though, that his conduct had contributed to the bad atmosphere, and reduced both his basic and compensatory awards by 25% for that contributory conduct.
Our case study on Caroline v ICTS (UK) Ltd looks at the same theme from another angle, an employer that followed its own process to the letter but still made a decision the tribunal found unfair.
Agyeman v Avicenna Retail Ltd. Case 6002767/2023. Employment Tribunal (Bristol). 14 July 2025.