What is and what is not bullying and discrimination?

Bullying (mobbing) means persistent harassment of an employee, that is behaviour that is repeated, recurring or constant (Article 94³ of the Polish Labour Code as in force from 5 November 2026). It may come from a superior, a co-worker, a subordinate or a group of people. Ordering or encouraging such behaviour is also bullying.

Discrimination means unequal treatment, in particular on grounds of sex, age, disability, race, religion, nationality, political opinion, trade union membership, ethnic origin, belief, sexual orientation or form of employment. It can be direct, or indirect – when an apparently neutral rule puts a group at a particular disadvantage.

Harassment is conduct whose purpose or effect is to violate a person’s dignity and create an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment. Sexual harassment is such conduct of a sexual nature or related to a person’s sex; it may be physical, verbal or non-verbal.

Examples of unacceptable behaviour:

• insulting employees at meetings or ridiculing them in front of students,
• spreading degrading comments, including in e-mails and online meetings,
• threatening professional consequences for expressing a reasoned opinion,
• withholding information needed for a task and then blaming the person for failure,
• arbitrary changes of requirements,
• encouraging co-workers to isolate a particular person,
• pressure to withdraw a complaint.

What is usually not bullying: justified criticism expressed in an appropriate way, assessment of work based on verifiable criteria, setting requirements and enforcing duties, a one-off disagreement, a refusal of funding. A single incident that violates dignity still requires a response, even if it is not bullying in the legal sense.

These rules apply to the whole University community – employees, associates, students and doctoral students – including in relations with administrative and support staff.