**1. Introduction**

Workplace bullying entails negative consequences on workers' life, by exposing workers to negative acts of co-workers, supervisors or subordinates [1,2]. The prevalence of workplace bullying is high across nations [3] and it is becoming an increasingly serious issue in South Korea (Korea, hereafter) in recent years. The vast majority of Korean employees (87%) report they have experienced some form of bullying within the previous six months [4]. The rate of workplace bullying experiences is even higher among employees who work long hours and non-regular employees who may have job insecurity [5]. Workplace bullying may impair employees' mental and physical health. However, there is lack of empirical research focusing on workplace bullying in Korea and its associations with Korean employees' well-being. Moreover, less is known about potential mediating mechanisms linking workplace bullying and employee well-being [6].

Work-to-family conflict is a possible mediator between workplace bullying and employee well-being. Work-to-family conflict refers to time-based, strain-based, and behavior-based interrole conflict between mutually incompatible demands from work and family domains in some respect [7]. According to the work-family interface model [7–9], negative experiences and stressors from

workplaces often spill over into employees' personal and family life via work-to-family conflict [10–13]. Work-to-family conflict, in turn, is associated with employees' negative health and well-being outcomes [14–19].

Based on the work-family interface model, previous studies have paid much attention to the negative work-to-family spillover effects of employees' emotional labor, abusive supervision, and social ostracism at workplaces [10–13,20–23]. However, there has been lack of research examining the negative work-to-family spillover effects originate from workplace bullying. To address this gap in occupational literature, this study examines the potential mediating role of work-to-family conflict in the link between workplace bullying and employee well-being outcomes assessed by quality of life and occupational health. Most of existing studies on workplace bullying have been based on Western samples, lacking in consideration of different cultural values on interpersonal relationships or organizational hierarchies and cultures in non-Western countries [6,23,24]. Findings from the Korean employee sample may enrich our understanding of the mechanism in which workplace bullying impairs employee well-being in a cultural context where employees are particularly vulnerable to experiencing workplace bullying and work-to-family conflict.
