Do you see evidence of Bullying in the Workplace?

hamster

Do you see evidence of Bullying in the Workplace?

In your everyday job do you notice any evidence of Bullying going on or hear about it? I work in the private sector in an office IT job. During my last 7 years (spread over 2 jobs) I have been really lucky in that I haven't encountered bullying or harassment. The closest to it has been witnessing my co-workers put under stress from IT Managers demanding greater work output. I would encounter mis-information or lack of information from mouth pieces but that is office politics.

Has anyone else's experience been different? I know of a few friends who are teachers and they encounter a lot of background "bitching" and arguments. I would have taught it is hard enough to deal with kids. Is this a public sector thing or is the problem even distributed? I imagine the situation depends on the type of job where the opportunity for this issue may depend on free time or maybe down to competition?

turbot

Working as a lifecoach, this is one of the most common issues people have asked for help in resolving, especially amongst women.

Anywhere there is office politics, anyone who isn't able to play the game is probably being bullied to some extent.

Zombrex

Since this has never happened to you it isn't really a Personal Issue ... this probably would be better off in Humanities

hamster

Agreed. Mods, please could you move it to humanities?

Zombrex

I have heard of bullying in a few places I worked, one case was very very bad (threat of violence was used) ... but most recently my flat mate has had trouble because a co-worker of hers has been very difficult to work with, but she is scared to say anything to him in case he lodges a complaint of bullying against her (he is a very "everyone is wrong but me, everyone is out to get me" type person, anything you say to try and point out that he is doing something wrong he takes as an attack against him). So it is a bit of a double edge sword. But it does go on, and I think rules against it are necessary.

simu

I've never seen it personally, no. Must be my good influence on people!

Dimitri

Where do you draw the line between office politics and bullying. I find that when a co worker is on to you for x or y it gets called politics but when a manager/supervisior is on to you its bullying. If certain "politics" are considered bullying than yes i see it everyday.

tj-music.com

Bullying is a biggy! I work(ed) with kids and there is a lot of bullying not only amongst them but from adults around them. It has become a massive issue.

Sleepy

I've heard a few people who were simply incompetent try to claim they were being bullied but I've never seen a real case of bullying tbh. That's not to say it doesn't happen though.

Anywhere there is office politics, anyone who isn't able to play the game is probably being bullied to some extent.

How so? It's their own inabilities causing their problems, not anyone else's malicious behaviour.

Evil Phil

I've seen bullying a couple of times in the work place, I myself have been threatened with violence by a co-worker (He eventually lost his job for a similar incident). I've also witnessed sexual discrimination which I reckon is far more common than bullying.

krd

I have seen bullying in different environments I have worked in. But it varies a great deal from place to place.

I'm very suspicous of people who say they have never witnessed it. I beleive they are either bullies themselves or get sadistic gratification from watching torment being inflicted. Bullies have their sychophants and generally alot of people get a kick out of cruelty.

Hey you've all been to school -- remember alot of people never grow up

Laplandman

I think that the more people come to have an inflated view work/profession as a means to personal empowerment/amelioration/compensation
for inadequacy, the more the workplace will become a repository of unresolved conflicts, frustrations and nasty emotions. I do however feel that for someone to
be successful in a position, a healthy degree of emotional attachment, even fantasy is required as a foil to the unhealthy prevalence of emotional detachment
from the soul-eroding grind of the workaday. For many people work has become hell and they want to die and they have crap lives and they raise crap kids who want to die.
Bullying is just insult to injury, and it happens a lot. Then again, most people I know are at least moderately successful and dont have to worry about inconveniences like these.

Tengu

Just read the thread guys and from my experience and also many of my friends and associates workplace bullying is a huge problem, my last 2 working environments became hell for me and I needed therapy because of the contant bullying I received, trust me this problem is enormous and very few people take it seriously, most men who are bullied are ashamed of admitting to it as its not the kind of thing a man finds comfortable to deal with and I've met 3 wonderful women who have been bullied by women and men to an equal extent, in the last 5 years I've experienced bullying in its many different forms from verbal abuse and victimisation to physical confrontations and stalking.
I thought that my experiences were just entirely bad luck but on having a goodbye meal with some of the work colleagues who I respected they opened up to me and let me know they too had suffered bullying, I started off in the IT sector at a call centre level and I've made contact with so many people from the IT sector in general who have had very bad experiences too, however bullying is not limited to these places either, I cannot write any further as it till leaves a sick feeling in my stomach to recall all the badness but perhaps a forum can be created for this issue as
its a devestating problem, one final thing is that there is a way out of it and ways to deal with it, I have been happlily working in a company that values my skills and respects me for the last 4 years and I don't even recognise myself anymore as once I was depressed, irritable, undervalued, bullied and now I am a completely different person, my advice for anyone suffering from this problem is to firstly seek out others with the same issues, hopefully a dedicated thread for this kind of thing could be set up, never take bullying for any reason, stand up to it and face it head on, in the end it was the only thing that helped me, I tried to placate my bullies first hoping that I would fit in and be accepted but the more you bend and fold to be like them the more you become their slut and dog, I am a man and am not ashamed to admit it happened and if anyone wants to get in contact with me to share their experiences you are more than welcome, sharing experiences like these can help a lot and if you are being persistantly bullied go to a therapist like I did, it changed my whole way of looking at things, anyway have a very lovely xmas holiday season and a great new year and feel free to pm me if you have had the same issues.

deisemum

As I'm older than a lot of people on this site so obviously working for a longer period of time I have to say that bullying in the work place does exist.

I work with young children and while I was training one valid point that we covered was the fact that bullies in playschool and school usually grow up and become adults who bully. As the majority of them do not get professional help to deal with their bullying they are not suddenly going to stop bullying once they reach 18. By that stage it has become a way of life. Your place of employment has a legal responsiblity and should have an anti-bullying policy.

If you are being bullied keep a record of each incident. Try and find out if other colleagues are also being bullied or if they ever witness any.

The OP mentioned friends who have encountered bullying. As a parent of school going children (primary) I can well believe this. The majority of teachers that my children have encountered have been lovely but a couple have been right sadistic bullies. I've had reason this year to report a male teacher for assaulting one of my children. A lot of Principals would love to get rid of cr*p teachers but their hands are tied. I don't know how they can deal with bullying amongst teachers.

BigArnie

It's just a pity we can't name and shame these companies for legal reasons. My advice: sully the name of any company where you worked and were allowed to be bullied. My ex-employer (Web Design and Development agency) had a nasty, lasting effect on my personality (I became fairly bitter, irritable, aggressive and depressed after some brutal psychological abuse by the Management and Project Managers). Since I left the company, I've made it my mission in life to do as much damage to the company and its reputation. I've warned industry peers against working there and supplied many anecdotes of my experiences there. I'm working for the competition now and we've stolen many of their clients and are regularly successful when pitching against them. I've even done some fairly underhanded things that I can't speak of for fear of incriminating myself legally Suffice to say, this company deserves everything it gets.

My advice to workplace bullies - don't do it. You'll eventually screw the wrong person who'll do his/her damndest to get back at you. :eek:

jay-me

turbot wrote:

Working as a lifecoach, this is one of the most common issues people have asked for help in resolving, especially amongst women.

Anywhere there is office politics, anyone who isn't able to play the game is probably being bullied to some extent.

I thought that profession only existed in America how would one go about becoming a life coach?