Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prevalence of workplace bullying in an Italian university. Design/methodology/approach: More than 200 workers have completed the Italian version of the Negative Acts Questionnaire and the General Health Questionnaire. Findings: The results show a spread of low to medium negative actions in the specific setting. In addition, the effects of negative actions on health are less serious than believed by most of the studies on workplace bullying. Originality/value: In particular, a quadratic regression model appears to be more appropriate than a linear model.