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Does anyone have experience with being bullied at work? From what I've read on the internet, Bully's never get fired.
it happens in many industries, i've seen it all the time in finance and banking where juniors are overworked and dehumanized by managers and peers.. there is less of it than 10-20 years ago, but it's still there. i would never work at an environemnt such as that if reported and nothing done, and would rather look for the same job at another company, and once you get another job, when you give your letter of resignation, you point out the scumbag who forced you to resign. there are also variations of bullying, such as sexual harassment, and it goes both ways.. i've seen women do it to younger men.
I don't understand how this happens to adults. If someone's behavior towards you is unacceptable, then you need to confront it.
Hopefully you never will "understand" it. But it is real. 9 times out of 10 the bully wins for reasons I explained earlier. You have to decide if you want to make confrontation your daily routine with the possibility of being fired over it.. Bullies seek out B-type personality people who are no match for someone who has a lifetime of experience at being a bad person. So, you have an expert workplace terrorist, aided and abetted by HR, what are you going to do? Some will tuff it out, others will leave . . . My bully is head of a union, so my job won't touch it. Very frustrating. I do my job but constantly fixate on how great it would be to wake up one morning to see the building engulfed in flames. We are moving soon, so the nightmare will end, but I got a real lesson in workplace bullying. Theres a lot more horror to it than just confronting the redneck subhuman who is assaulting you
Hopefully you never will "understand" it. But it is real. 9 times out of 10 the bully wins for reasons I explained earlier. You have to decide if you want to make confrontation your daily routine with the possibility of being fired over it.. Bullies seek out B-type personality people who are no match for someone who has a lifetime of experience at being a bad person. So, you have an expert workplace terrorist, aided and abetted by HR, what are you going to do? Some will tuff it out, others will leave . . . My bully is head of a union, so my job won't touch it. Very frustrating. I do my job but constantly fixate on how great it would be to wake up one morning to see the building engulfed in flames. We are moving soon, so the nightmare will end, but I got a real lesson in workplace bullying. Theres a lot more horror to it than just confronting the redneck subhuman who is assaulting you
Are you part of that union or are you part of management?
Are you part of that union or are you part of management?
It's a situation I can't comprehend. I am an artist, but they put me in a Logistics union for some reason(?) I guess there are 4 stragglers they needed to put somewhere? , I dunno . . .But, the predator is a "steward" for that union. Ive been working for 40 years and never, ever had anything like this happen. But, this women is obsessed by me and that obsession has made my work life there miserable. I don't want to hijack the OP's thread, I only wrote this stuff to give an example of workplace bullying. I am shocked/saddened/enraged at the response from HR. Several people were interviewed, and to a person, they said the behavior was aggressive and unprovoked, so upon hearing that, HR went about altering records and "findings" to make it appear there is no problem in preperation for a legal action I said I was going to file. I'm sure I come off poorly in this forum sometime, but in real life, I am very quiet an keep to myself. I never engage in the gossip or clique type stuff, so given that, it makes it all the harder for me to try to think where this came from and why. Very frustrating. Oh well . . . Its going to be over soon, so just another bad memory that I will eventually just forget about, like high school, or my first date
BTW, I looked up bully's on city-data but didn't find much.
I put bully in the search function and came up with the following, and these were just the first 6 threads to show up that dealt with bullying recently. There are many more.
It's a situation I can't comprehend. I am an artist, but they put me in a Logistics union for some reason(?) I guess there are 4 stragglers they needed to put somewhere? , I dunno . . .But, the predator is a "steward" for that union. Ive been working for 40 years and never, ever had anything like this happen. But, this women is obsessed by me and that obsession has made my work life there miserable. I don't want to hijack the OP's thread, I only wrote this stuff to give an example of workplace bullying. I am shocked/saddened/enraged at the response from HR. Several people were interviewed, and to a person, they said the behavior was aggressive and unprovoked, so upon hearing that, HR went about altering records and "findings" to make it appear there is no problem in preperation for a legal action I said I was going to file. I'm sure I come off poorly in this forum sometime, but in real life, I am very quiet an keep to myself. I never engage in the gossip or clique type stuff, so given that, it makes it all the harder for me to try to think where this came from and why. Very frustrating. Oh well . . . Its going to be over soon, so just another bad memory that I will eventually just forget about, like high school, or my first date
Stewards have legal protections, but only in regards to their interactions with management. A steward is bound to the "Duty of Fair Representation".
Quote:
The duty of fair representation is incumbent upon U.S. labor unions that are the exclusive bargaining representative of workers in a particular group. It is the obligation to represent all employees fairly, in good faith, and without discrimination.
You could file a grievance on grounds of harassment depending on what it is she's doing/saying. But you would need to refer to your contract and union by-laws.
There is also the The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA): You are protected from improper union discipline. Due process is required in internal union disciplinary hearings, including:
the right to specific, written charges;
the right to confront and cross-examine accusers;
adequate time to prepare a defense;
the right to a full and fair hearing and a decision based on the evidence.
Fiduciary Duties
Under Title V, union representatives are obligated to manage union business for the sole benefit of the members. Individuals who violate their fiduciary duty may be sued in federal court.
I don't understand how this happens to adults. If someone's behavior towards you is unacceptable, then you need to confront it.
It happens because many adults need the job. At first they don't understand what is happening to them. Then when the they do, they often can't just cut and run due to family obligations or other. It's real easy on a CD thread for someone to say "just quit" but a lot harder when you have a family and children who are depending on you for everything. In the workplace confronting it often has very strong repercussions back on the victim rather than the bully. If you haven't experienced it, I hope you never do, because once you have, you don't doubt it.
Quote:
Originally Posted by charlygal
Again, can someone explain exactly what is happening to you? Is it just nasty language?
It's not something that is simple and easy to explain. And when written often sound like nothing happened. But no, it's not just nasty language. That may be part of it, but may not. It can be subtle but continuous using language that everyone in the room considers normal conversation, but the victim, because of the continuous nature and often because of things said at other times, when the rest of the room wasn't around, knows mean something very different between the bully and victim.
It can go beyond that to include sabotaging work, leaving someone off important email chains, misrepresenting them to others, asking questions that can't be answered without making the victim look stupid in front of others. Bullies are very good at making themselves appear as angels to everyone but the victim. "I asked Charlygal to prepare the presentation. What, didn't you read my email? Everyone else got it and came prepared. I'm so sorry to have to apologize for her again; I'm sure she'll be better prepared next time. <aside: I'm working with her, but I don't know if she's ready for this level of responsibility.>"
And it often grows to include verbal harassment, sexual harassment, etc. One bully boss I had would kick back, spread his legs, and pretend to, uh, satisfy himself, when certain people were talking.
Im thankful Ive always worked with rough individuals/around rough individuals who would never tolerate that kind of crap, or expect it.
I do recall having a boss one time that was an absolute POS, he crossed one co worker and was promptly followed to the parking lot of a local Target store on his day off and punched a few times in the face. Im not condoning that behavior, or advocating it, but much like in school, that supervisor came back to work monday and his tune was completely different.
A supervisor at UPS who probably thought I was retarded just because I was quiet and socially awkward (didn't care about talking about sports, which they obsessed over, so I kept quiet and to myself). And I had friends there, but this supervisor was such an ass. If I were talking with friends, he'd send us to different areas, just to isolate me or stick me with someone who he assumed would make me work harder. Mind you I was already one of the hardest workers on that shift. They like to work everyone in packaging like dogs, but he and others treated me particularly like I was some feral tool with no mind and no worth other than serving them. Sometimes they probably thought I was dumb just because I often took my time and put my SAFETY first instead of clumsily and recklessly rushing like they wished I would. I put up with him for almost a year until I got sick of it and quit. He was petty. And he was at least ten years older than me. A shame. Some may say I'm taking it too seriously. NAH! I always felt the animosity that idiot had towards me. And I wasn't the only one he did it to either.
Just posted this yesterday in a thread with a similar topic.
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