Bullying in the Work Place

They've been discussing adult bullying in the work place on Loose Women on ITV today. It's surprising how much of it goes on and it's only something I've come across more recently.

I worked at one place where someone in a powerful position and their side kick mercilessly bullied several members of staff, there was a high staff turn over at that place, something that should have been picked up by someone in authority! When good staff are forced into resigning [which is what seemed to happen] then there's something wrong.

The bullying took this kind of form:

* Excluding members of staff. By this I mean when the person being bullied [they often picked on one person forcing them to leave and then turned their attention on someone else] that person would be left out of certain things or topics of conversation.

* Sending someone to Coventry. The pair would not speak to the particular staff member. One woman who had been forced into resigning was ignored for the last few days she worked at the office. She wasn't allowed to tell us she was leaving and when she'd left, the following Monday, we all received letters in our pigeon-holes informing us she had left her position.

* Not being allowed a say. Staff members weren't allowed to discuss work related issues. One meeting was held where I gave several suggestions of how working conditions could be improved, after that, we were never allowed another meeting.

* The poor woman who was forced to resign was shouted at in front of other people, victimised and made to feel she couldn't do her job properly, even though she had once worked for years in a responsible position and I felt she was very good at her job.

* Undermining. Anything worthwhile the woman did was undermined. She created a new filing system, which was changed.

* Given too large a workload. The woman was also given too many jobs to do, so she became highly stressed and when other members of staff offered to help they were told they couldn't.

I've used just an example of what happened to one good member of staff there, there were many others who were forced to resign, including myself eventually, even though I was well thought of by others. I was told I could go back there at a later date. No idea why but I didn't take them up on that offer. I wanted out. Things had changed a great deal and there were many 'working practices' I wasn't happy about. So I just accepted the cheap bunch of flowers they gave people when they'd outed them and the crappy card, pasted a smile on my face said, 'Goodbye!' and dumped them in the nearest bin!

I finally discovered why the woman was set up to fail, they wanted her out of the job so it could go to a family member.

Manipulation of the highest order!