Organisations that listen, adapt and invest in culture will be best placed to turn the tide of claims
Employers are facing a disturbing surge in psychological injury claims linked to bullying and harassment, with new Allianz data suggesting the problem is now deeply embedded in workplace culture rather than confined to “a few bad apples”.
Across Allianz’s national workers’ compensation portfolio, the proportion of active claims caused by bullying and harassment has jumped 75.7% between 2021 and 2025.
Psychological injury claims tied to workplace bullying and harassment now represent 39.5% of all mental injury claims in 2025 – and 39.5% of all active workers’ compensation claims for FY2025.
Employees aged 50–60 account for the largest share of active psychological claims overall (29%) and also lodged the highest proportion of bullying and harassment‑related psychological claims last year, again around 29% of all such cases.
Younger workers, however, are catching up fast: Millennials have recorded a 34.78% relative increase in psychological claims linked to workplace bullying since 2021, with Gen Z “on a similar trajectory” as they enter the workforce.
For Allianz, the message is clear: bullying and harassment are cultural issues, not isolated incidents. Employers, it says, must strengthen workplace culture and prioritise psychological and emotional safety to protect the wellbeing of every worker.
In discussion with HRD, Allianz’s national manager mental health strategy and delivery, Brianna Cattanach, said the figures reflect both a genuine rise in harmful behaviour and a long‑overdue shift in how workers understand and report it.
More claims – and more confidence to call out bad behaviour
Cattanach is cautious about interpreting the data as simply proof workplaces are getting worse.
“I think it appears that these behaviours are increasing,” she said. “What we also have to recognise is that there's growing understanding of the workers’ compensation claim process. More individuals are being encouraged through avenues around workers’ comp to help address experiences in the workplace through unions and through other stakeholders.”
In other words, some of the spike is driven by workers feeling more confident in reporting issues.
“I don't think we're purely seeing an increase in behaviours,” Cattanach explained. “Part of what we're seeing is these behaviours now coming into the workers' compensation landscape a bit more.”
At the same time, workers – and particularly younger generations – have a broader and more nuanced understanding of what actually constitutes bullying and harassment.
Subtle forms of harassment and microaggressions that might once have been dismissed as “personality clashes” or “just part of the culture” are now being recognised as harmful – and reported.
Return‑to‑office: more contact, more conflict – and new avenues for exclusion
One factor Cattanach sees shaping the rise in claims is the post‑pandemic shift back towards office‑based work.
The return to office has exposed a kind of “social rust” in many workplaces, as employees who have spent years in remote or hybrid environments relearn how to interact face‑to‑face.
“The effects of lockdowns and COVID-19 mean that probably some of those social professional behaviours have been a little bit lost,” she said.
“When we're predominantly interacting in an online forum – emails and things like that – that looks very different to the way you should be behaving when you're physically present with someone, when you're attending meetings as a group.”
As organisations enforce or encourage more in‑person days, those gaps in social and professional norms are being laid bare.
“Part of what we're seeing is that we actually have just probably had a bit of a negative shift in professional behavioural standards that need to be realigned now that we're all back physically working together,” Cattanach noted.
Culture clash over flexibility is fuelling tension
Cattanach stressed that return‑to‑office is “a lot more complicated than just slapping the mandate on”.
“We've got obviously significant changes to people's current routines that might rely quite heavily on some of that work from home time… to also attend to life, caring and other responsibilities,” she said.
Different views about what work should look like are now colliding: those who welcome being back in the office versus those who feel they’ve built their lives around hybrid flexibility.
That tension can quickly escalate.
“That naturally can become a point of conflict that can then move into some of these bullying and harassment issues,” Cattanach warned.
The same goes where there’s misalignment between leadership expectations and workers: “Again, that can create then that real gap in understanding and empathy, which can then fester into some bullying and harassment issues in some instances.”
Add to that the strain on people’s “social battery” as they readjust to crowded environments and constant in‑person interaction, and the risk of friction is obvious.
Generational differences: older workers bear the brunt, younger workers speak up
While Allianz’s data shows workers aged 50–60 currently make up the largest share of active psychological injury claims, Cattanach noted that Millennials and Gen Z are rapidly reshaping the profile of who is coming forward.
“I think in a positive way, this generation tends to prioritise mental health and wellbeing a lot more than what we've historically seen,” Cattanach said. “They're also more likely to speak up when they encounter issues in the workplace.”
Millennials, in particular, are “typically more aware of their rights and the importance of a healthy work environment than what some of the previous generations have seen,” she added. That awareness is contributing to higher reporting – and, ultimately, more claims.
These younger cohorts are also navigating workplaces in flux: rapid changes in technology, shifting ways of working, evolving expectations around flexibility and performance, and now more assertive return‑to‑office policies.
“That can at times lead to misunderstandings or conflicts that then perpetuate into bullying and harassment when they probably could have been managed in a different way,” Cattanach said.
As workplaces continue to recalibrate in a post‑pandemic world, Allianz’s data makes one thing unmistakably clear: bullying and harassment are not peripheral issues but indicators of deeper cultural fault lines.
The surge in psychological injury claims signals both rising pressure and rising expectations for safer, more respectful workplaces.
For employers, the challenge now is to move beyond compliance and tick‑box policies, and actively rebuild professional standards, empathy and psychological safety in a landscape reshaped by hybrid work, return‑to‑office tensions and generational change.
