A Bully Of a Day At The Office? - Help Yourself and Help Others - Take Action!

Mobbing or bullying can come about for a number of reasons, the victim's background, ethnicity, religion, attitude to work, age, moral values, abilities and even if for example, there is someone already employed in the area who feels they have a better right or historical claim to the position the perceived interloper has won.

And it can be started by the smallest of issues - clothing, perfume, a spouse's employment, even smoking. There could even be a correlation here with the novel "Lord of the Flies" by William Golding, where the bullying attitudes of intellectually weaker, but stronger members of the group actually assume leadership over the intellectually superior, but less physical members to create moral and emotional havoc in their lives.

I can remember a case in an earlier place of employment where a chap sat and smoked his smelly old cigar at his desk, directly opposite a girl who was allergic to the smell of smoking in any form. She took her case to the highest person in the office to no avail. Desperate she took matters into her own hands and brought a large fan into work, which she positioned on her desk to face the smoker. When he smoked she turned on the fan and his offending smoke blew back onto him. Ultimately she was moved out of the office; across to a non air-conditioned building while he continued to fearlessly smoke his cigars until anti smoking legislation was introduced.

It would appear from what I have read and heard about there are many cases in the general arena where people have been mobbed or bullied out of their area of work, and in some really bad cases completely out of their place of employment. The victim is so demoralized that their feelings of worthlessness cause them to ignore any paths of possible redress so usually there is none, no comeback, no standing up for one's rights.

An addendum to the above- I heard recently that one of the minor bullies that I had to contend with was bullied by the chief bully after I left my former place of work and while this was small solace - it just goes to show that no one is immune even if they think that they have the power behind them - because the chief bully will always need a victim to prove themselves worthy of whatever!

copyright a.a.gallagher 2007