Putting your complaint into words

Send it to the right person

It might be your supervisor or manager, but if your complaint is about them, send it to someone more senior in the organisation, if there is one. If you have a Human Resources department, then the HR manager might be appropriate. Check your procedure. Unless you have a compelling reason to copy more senior people, do not copy them, because one of them might be required to remain unconnected with the matter so they can remain impartial to deal with your appeal, if you subsequently appeal the first decision on your grievance. If you are a member of a trade union, they might send the letter on your behalf, if not, you may wish to send a copy to your union representative. It's normal to let the recipient see who has been sent a copy.

Use facts not opinions

Before you write this letter, you may have kept a journal of the bullying, along with evidence. If you have not, now is a good opportunity to get your head around the experience, write out a timeline and gather what evidence you can to support your beliefs. Documents in support of workplace bullying are often work-related documents. Gather as many relevant items as you can, as early as you can in the process.

An employer can investigate allegations if they are statements of fact or reasonably held belief, but not if they are unsupported statements of your opinion or judgments.

A statement of fact might be: "On 18th October at about 11:30, at the General Manager's desk in the main office, I told him that if my department's resourcing was cut back any further, we would no longer be able to perform to the required quality. I suggested that we would have to stop working on project B to finish Project A. He said: 'If you don't think you're up to the job, you can always leave, and I'll do your job in my spare time'. It sounded like he thinks my job is easy and I am very inefficient at it. Two of my colleagues (X and Y) were standing next to him, and I know they respect his opinion, so I felt humiliated in front of them. I didn't know what to say, so I did not answer him, but I was very angry and upset inside. That evening, I wrote an account in my journal, as well as how I was feeling."

An unsupported statement of opinion on the same incident might be: "Les is a mean bully who will not let me have the resources to do my job and he says he could do it in his spare time. He always undermines me in front of my colleagues."

The first statements have a chance of being verified, but the second has not. The unsupported statement of opinion could be judged as unqualified, whereas statements of verifiable fact cannot reasonably be said to be unfounded. 

For each incident, you need to state what happened and include the date and time of each incident, the location, who was involved, what words were said, and the names of any witnesses. If there was more than once incident, write your account in chronological order. If you can't remember an exact date, you can say "about three days after I returned" etc.  The more precise you are, the less chance there is of the accused person plausibly denying your allegation.