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A rise in employees "weaponising" bullying allegations for strategic reasons now requires a more measured response from HR, according to an employment lawyer.

Dentons partner Paul O'Halloran says these claims tend to be highly subjective, but very well articulated. They often target senior people "in a really strategic way", and stem from "some political altercation in the workplace".

It's often "more like a PR campaign" to further an agenda, even "destroy someone", rather than a legitimate complaint, O'Halloran tells HR Daily.

And usually it's the complainant's behaviour that can be characterised as bullying, "because it can often put the respondent to those allegations in a really precarious position and [even] jeopardise their career"...