We created this page for your stories about how you suffered through different types of workplace bullying, mobbing, harassment or verbal abuse in the past or may be going through right now.

We can include your story on our website if you like and by sharing, you can release some of the emotional trauma you are experiencing plus you will be helping others that are being bullied right now.

Send your brief story to judith_munson@yahoo.com with “Your Stories” in the subject line. We don’t need to publish your name or the names of the abusers or the company.

This is a public site so please try to keep it clean and not use vulgar language or tasteless  innuendos here.

Thank you for sharing,

Judith

Submitted on 2012/08/15 at 8:27 AM

Examples of how 2 supervisors treated me as an inpatient social worker:

1)A few years ago, Mary, Administrative Director for the Department of Psychiatry ordered a task and then when I complied, she became angry that I complied. When I reminded her of her initially ordering this task, she denied it. She permitted and asked me to have regular contact with Robert’s attorneys about a case. I did as she requested. As I was updating her that I did this, she yelled, “I thought that we agreed that I’d be the only one to have any contact with Robert’s staff!” I responded that “I was given the impression that this was something that you wanted me to do and pursue aggressively,” and then reminded her that I have kept her updated on specifics frequently. She then said, “You don’t have to get upset…next time we’ll have to be clearer with each other.”

2)On 11-12-06, there was a shortage of three social workers on inpatient, thus I was responsible for a triple case load. At this time, Mary acted as the primary “social worker” for a few cases to assist us. In the beginning of November, I put a written request to take the morning of 12/4/06 off, in Martha’s  mailbox. On Friday before 12/4, I assumed that she reviewed this request already, and left a message for her, reminding her that I would be out on that morning. When I returned to work that afternoon, she said: “I’m dismayed that you were out this morning when I never approved it…people don’t leave a message saying that they will be out, especially when we are short staffed…you made it really difficult for everyone on the unit, leaving them with extra work to cover for you…XYZ patient has been waiting to see you for hours…our communication must improve!”This would have been acceptable for a new employee, but not for myself who had an excellent attendance record and who had been employed for over three years. I attempted to explain that I had been especially thorough on Friday to assure the least amount of work possible for everyone on Monday…I told her that I am not responsible for all sides of communication, and then apologized for not being more proactive when making the request for time off. It turned out that she had not checked her mailbox for several weeks, so my written request was still sitting there over the weekend. I said that she did not not approve the morning off, and that I was not responsible for her neglecting to not check her mailbox. She said, “You expect everyone around you to be perfect!”

3)On a yearly basis, the hospital paid for professional conferences of an educational nature. In 2005, I submitted the receipt for reimbursement for about $150, and Mary arranged for me to get reimbursed $100, saying “I can approve $100 only because there’s this new policy limiting the amount to this.” In 2006, I submitted a receipt for another conference requesting $137. This was processed through the chief of psychiatry there and his secretary, and I was reimbursed fully and received a check for $137. It’s common sense that a hospital would not increase the amount of money permitted to employees for a conference, especially by over $30.

4)While carrying 10 cases (well over the the amount that’s reasonably safe to manage) in October, Mary attacked me about how I handled a particular case. During this time there was no social worker manager between us. Mary was pushing for the discharge of one of the most dangerous patients on the unit. She said that I didn’t collaborate enough with the treatment team. Without my knowing about it, she initiated a call to the family saying that they should immediately come in because a discharge is likely to occur that same day. A few minutes later, she paged me to tell me to prepare for a family meeting. She said that I didn’t give enough attention to the patient (even though the patient was so extremely agitated, that he was unable to listen to anything) immediately after a family meeting, said that I didn’t prioritize this case, and that I didn’t work fast enough on it.I reminded her that as long as we are dangerously understaffed, the patients will be shortchanged, that I did my best, and that I did have 10 cases that day. After the patient had been discharged, I discussed the case with the attending MD looking for feedback. That MD complimented me in a positive way, and did not say anything critical.

5)In November, Mary said that an attending MD complained about me saying that I did not recommend or coordinate a family meeting for a patient. I then spoke with that same attending MD, who said that she didn’t feel that a family meeting was ever needed throughout the patient’s entire stay. I told Mary this as well as the following “the attending MD never asked me to arrange a family meeting…I spoke with the daughter on the first day of admission, at which time she appeared highly supportive of the patient, and satisfied with all that the team was doing…therefore, I saw no need for a family meeting.”Mary responded that such a meeting was probably needed for this particular case. I reminded Mary that it is not realistic or necessary to have a family meeting for every patient. I then told her that “I fully updated the attending regularly on the case. This included my initial impression of the daughter…I left a follow up message for the daughter…then spoke with her a second time…I offered a discharge meeting to her as she was about to pick up.”

6)Mary said that I was “unthorough” about the case of XYZ, which I disagreed with. When I attempted to give examples of how thorough I was for this case, she called me “disrespectful.” This would have been acceptable for an employee who tended to be unthorough, but not for myself who had a solid track record and reputation of being thorough. She said that Bart, one of the nurses, complained to her on December 4th, telling her that I was not thorough in this same case. Bart was not on duty that day. Jim and Marleen were the nurses on that day instead. I recall Marleen complimenting me on how thorough I was in my first year. Feedback from the attending MD on this particular case was that I performed “superbly.” All the key contacts in N.H., that is, from the hospital to his legal guardian, complimented me on how well I handled the case.

7)On the day before leaving for vacation to start May of the following year, Beverly (still social work manager) and I met to discuss and transfer cases. By the end of that day, I outlined in writing, further details updating her on my cases, and gave this to her. Regarding the case of ABC, when we had spoken earlier that day, the plan was for him to be discharged the next day. By the time I wrote out my updates, the plan changed in that the timing of the discharge was probably not going to be for another couple days given the acuity level. I wrote to her regarding this case, “plan for discharge not tomorrow, gave patient aggressive response tool, needs anger management resource, DMH/group meeting here scheduled for Monday..this is the earliest possible that they can do it, family needs NAMI contact information, parents want DMH – CM to find patient a new Day Treatment program, parents want to pursue legal guardianship, group home’s policy is that discharge cannot occur on the same day as the meeting.” I remembered the group home manager stating that they did not “allow” a discharge to occur on the same day as the outpatient provider meeting with the inpatient team.

Immediately upon return from this vacation, Beverly stated “You should have cleaned things up before going on vacation…you left lose ends untied…you dumped everything on me…I had to scramble around last minute trying to find him an anger management resource…you didn’t talk to me about this patient needing an anger management resource before you left…this was a top priority for the attending MD (Dr. S)…nor did you tell me that the day treatment was shutting down and that he couldn’t be accepted there anyway…I had to refer him to X partial…you didn’t do what I asked you to do …you’re reactivity makes you not be good at accepting feedback and you need to take responsibility for your actions.” I attempted to explain that: “I did not know that the day treatment was shut down and that he couldn’t go there…I did do everything that you asked me to do…I’m feeling targeted…this is nitpicking.” D.G. was discharged on May 7th while I was still on vacation, which was several days after I thoroughly updated her. She had three days to assess the case and its needs. If this was such a high priority for the attending MD, one would assume that the need for an anger management resource would have been mentioned to Beverly. I had never, before this situation, been told that I did not complete all necessary tasks immediately preceding a vacation.

Submitted on 2012/08/15 at 9:27 AM

Examples of how Dr. Irene treated me in another job as an inpatient social worker:

1)On the day preceding expected discharge for one of our patients, she asked me to investigate what medication this patient had already been on prior to admission and to find out what medications patient already has at home. She then asked me to find out if any of this patient’s medications were left in the ER. She said that she wanted this information in order to help her figure out what prescriptions to call in to the pharmacy. When I set a limit by stating that this cannot be investigated, considering that she does not live in supervised housing and has no family and no friend, she raised her tone of voice while saying, “the social worker’s supposed to make sure this is done!”

2)She asked me to call a patient’s pharmacy to provide a particular phone number that she had access to. I responded to this by saying that I cannot do this, and have never called a pharmacy for a patient, and that this is not appropriate for social work. She raised her tone of voice repeating this request and stating that she cannot do this. I did meet this request of hers.

3)I had made several attempts early in the day to directly contact an insurance reviewer to complete a review. We were not able to do this until 3:30pm. When I gave Dr. Irene notice at 4 pm that a peer-peer may occur, she yelled at me: “You don’t know how to prioritize! You should’ve gotten this done earlier! This has to stop, and can never happen again…doing things at the last minute.” My only response to this, was “I’ll keep this in mind in the future.” This peer to peer was not actually required as a result of the review I completed.

4)She yelled at me for not arranging an earlier appointment for psychopharmacology. The first availability for this at a particular agency was approximately 4 weeks out. There was no other agency with earlier availability than this, and that was local to this patient’s home. This agency that provided this appointment was the patient’s first choice. Primary care appointment was scheduled for approximately 1 week following discharge. The patient only had non-managed Medicaid and thus there was no insurance that had the ability to assist in getting an earlier appointment. Referring to partial hospitalization was not possible due to lack of insurance coverage. I explained all of these points to her and asked her to consider writing extra refills on the prescriptions, which she did not do.

5)After providing extensive detail about a patient’s baseline, as was provided by reliable family, to her in a meeting, she responded by saying “I don’t have a sense of what this patient’s baseline is.”

6)When I told her 2 hours in advance that I plan on calling a chair car for 12:30 for a patient, she stated “You’re telling me now?! I should have been informed of this by you much earlier.” I responded to this by explaining that a time was negotiated with the receiving facility based on obtaining an insurance authorization # and giving this # to that facility, all about 10 minutes previously.

7)In applying to a state inpatient unit, that state unit asked for the first time that same day, that this patient’s hospitalization course be written in a letter format by the Dr. Irene. Upon hearing this, I immediately made this request of her. She yelled, “I am leaving in 5 minutes! I’ve never had to do this before!” I did not know that she was planning on leaving work around noon that day.I was asked to resign on the same day that Dr. Irene talked to my supervisor, which I can easily assume involved Dr. Irene making false and inappropriate accusations about my work.

Peer failed to document incidents on employee
I was directed to handle evaluation and falsely score
I protested, but followed through
Clients rights violated
I voiced concern, told to stop, told I was jealous of other relationships boss had with my peers,
Racial discrimination taking place against lower level employee
I voiced,wrote up my concerns
No response
Given directives verbally, then informed that no one ever said that
Plus more shades of gray behavior taking place that affect employees/clients
Screamed at
I filed harassment, won
Buckled my seat belt for a rough ride now, understood that the real trip was about to begin, and it did in a big way.
Belittling e-mails flooding me/peers about me
Demoted for action that has been practiced for 20 years with proven documentation, HR not helpful, but helpful to employer, not a surprise
Union is a person(s) that only sits next to you during discipline, has a meeting with you 2 days before, no real help except for the emotional side,you need to know how to prepare your own case

Informed not allowed to pursue legal action, unless it is racial, sexism ect.
Frustrating, but trying to keep emotions out, have to reply on collective bargaining,(union)
hard work of preparing documents
Understand that a good job is better than any law suit any day.
However,
Something needs to change in the law to protect, and not just unions, but the law. Not every bad thing is listed under the 5-7 protected classes of discrimination. Harassment intimidation, bullying should be against the law in the workplace, and protected and one should be able to take legal action, and that is not my ego talking, it is a terrible thing to live through and observe happening to people that are to afraid to take action(but understand, because they are not protected, beyond unions, and hopefully the union is strong and not in the employers pocket).

In pool of employees that I was in charge of
Dismissed by my prior fellow peers
When and if re-instated, going to be challenge
Workplace has succeeded,diminished my reputation on all levels

i will have to find grace, and patients to survive

My case took place in Kenya. I am a primary school teacher and last December, my District Education Officer wrote to me asking me to explain why I had written leaflets incriminating his office with corruption. I had heard that leaflets had been thrown around the district stating how the Human Resource Officer was demanding bribes in form of money and sex from teachers. I went to his office to explain that I knew nothing about the leaflets but the Human Resource Officer told me to step out of the office.

I then wrote to the Permanent Secretary in the Ministry of Education stating how the DEO was intimidating me.The DEO went further and interdicted me in January this year and my salary was halved. Now two of my children have dropped out of school due to fee arrears that I have not been able to pay as I wait to be reinstated after all investigations are complete. My wife is now overburdened by taking care of me and our children in all financial aspects.

I hope to write a book about my experience that has cost my innocent children and wife.

Since my x supervisor had an accident and hit her head, (you could see the large bump on her forehead afterward) she has become like that of the, “workplace psychopath.” She use to help defend me against other bullies in the office, now behaves as though, I’m the bully who’s doing the harassment and is harassing her! It’s so awful! There’s so much to this I’m going through emotional, mental and physical anguish on a daily basis, and hourly basis. She constantly walked by my work desk, staring at me every 30 mins. to every hour. She’s formed a “mob” and has another coworker (who works for Union) who before she formed the mob with him, constantly paces between his desk to the break room, all day long almost every other 5 minutes of every day. Every time he comes back from the break room, he stares at me. I’ve now gone so far as to lifting my computer monitor high from off of my desk to have both of them stop staring at me all day! What’s worse yet, is finally the President of the company became involved (because my x psychopath supervisor told on me about insubordination as she calls it being done to her from me when she’s the one who harasses and stares at me, pacing my desk every day almost constantly throughout the day) about me verbally lashing out at her for her “always being there everywhere I go!” which was a comment I made to her at one time. She actually told me how dare you speak to me that way! I then called her a bitc* to her face and said it’s true! You’re always everywhere I go all day long every day! What’s wrong with you? Leave me alone! She threatened to go to my Father to tell him what I had done and said to her, how I spoke to her, insuborinately and I snapped back, “Go ahead! Go do that bitc*!” Of course, the HR is my Father of all things, and he of all things, sided with her over me. Why? He told me that his reputation’s more important. sigh

Should I quit my job?

I’ve been documenting every time she and the other man she’s been mobbing with has been staring at me and harassing me. This going on almost constantly, and even the President has now became involved and called me into his office one day, out of the blue. Of all things, he’s accusing me, of being the one who’s doing the harassment. I’m younger than the x supervisor and the man she’s been mobbing with. I don’t know what to do! I’m so worn out with all of this and I’m starting to even take it out on and yell at the one I love now too. (starting a bad headache now)

Supposedly, it’s called insubordination when you yell at a superior figure right? What about what’s being done to someone who’s of a lesser position in the company, who’s being harassed throughout the day? Is there a term for this? Should I report all of this to the BBB including my Father the HR and President actually having chosen to side with the “workplace psychopath” and her “mob” by not putting a stop to my being constantly and daily being harassed? She’s been putting my work down too, by making me make changes to how I’ve been creating labels for folders for almost 8 years I’ve been working at the company for. I have documented proof and that all of the other departments had been making the folders the same way I had too. This is absolutely ridiculous! She crossed out what I was doing right in front of my Senior Supervisor too, and what really surprised me was, she agreed with her and how she had belittled and how she chose to have what I’ve been doing, be corrected!

My job of now almost 8 years was fine (almost except for a few people in the other department I was once in because of a jealousy factor) until this woman who has formed a mob with this one other coworker came into this work place. Now I can hardly sleep at night and my health, self worth, self esteem, personal life, etc. are all going to pure hel* more and more each day, especially the place I work at.

I am 55 years old and have always prided myself on being able to work with anyone. My career has been in the Banking Industry since I ws 18 and so I have met and worked with all types of personalities. I was able to work under the radar of alot of bullies and actually today I look back on these relationships and thank them for teaching how not to be. However as I have grown as a person, wife, mother, daughter and friend and employee, I am at the stage that I cannot tolerate the abuse/ intimidation any longer.This type of enviroment drains me emotionaly daily and I always come back to the realization that I have to put up with this or leave. In 2007/8 I was bullied to the point of a leave of abscense from work and my doctor wanted to admit me to the hospital, but I chose to attend a 3 week workshop in the hospital to try to understand that this was not my fault. The program was extremely helpful, but as it turned out I had to quit in the end. I went to a new bank with a feeling that all would be different. Well its not. I am now on more medication and I feel myself starting to recognize old feeling that are very unhealthy. My personality has always projected a nice person. I am nice and whats wrong with that. I am fair, accomodating, pleasant, work hard and always try to find the good in people. I have liked myself and how I treat people and the feedback tells me that I am a good person. So now I am weakened, my anxiety it relentless and I am starting to overthink things and look for not so healthy coping strategies. I have used the Banks EAP,expressed my feelings, guardedly, to my immediate supervosor, spoken to both people who are the unpleasant ones, but still very little success. I know my story is common, but now what?

I work for a large mail company and almost 3 years a go our delivery office manager(DOM) moved to another office. Since the arrival of the new manager, an already declining office moral has now dropped to an all time low.
When we had our last revision of delivery duties, each walk had a scheduled time for indoor work: sorting mail. It became very clear within a short period of time-even allowing for adjustments and to get up to speed-that a shortage of staff and miscalculations when devising deliveries(walks), meant that the sorting times allocated did not provide sufficient hours to complete all sorting. The schedules then mysteriously vanished and we then had to sort mail for much longer periods and therefore could not complete delivery duties within our scheduled shift times. Whilst overtime is not obligatory, we were not offered any solutions to counteract extra indoor workloads and had to work over to complete or “cut off” leaving mail in order to finish on time. Much opposition was made against people cutting off and when, after several complaints to my line manager that the workload was not achievable, my competency was then challenged; my sorting rate was tested, of which I achieved well above the minimum requirement. I made several complaints to different line managers that I should then be tested on delivery, this never took place and no attempts were made to offer help or solutions. The heat was then turned-up as we then started to meet resistance from our line manager for claiming overtime to complete. A daily occurrence of having to report to him that in order to complete I would not finish on time then to be told “what do you mean you need to claim”? or “don’t claim too much”! Or, even being told on some days that he didn’t know whether overtime on a particular day would be paid at all! This went on for over 2 years I ended up putting in a grievance. My grievance was overturned and my managers behaviour was put down to “strong management” and my that I should probably have been tested on delivery but with the next revision coming, it was unlikely. No mention to changes to indoor workload. There is much more I could say on this but I won’t go on too much.

Approximately 2 months ago another revision was completed. We now work in pairs. During the first week we were claiming overtime; as expected when adjusting to a new delivery. For the most part we have been able to complete within duty time, but, having to work frenetically to achieve this; rushing from start of prep to finish on delivery, we are at times practically running out there! When my partner took leave 2 weeks ago the postman covering worked a much much slower pace, indoors and out, even allowing for the delivery being new to him. I was having to do most of the indoor workload and help him deliver his parts of the delivery. On day three we cut off and had to leave rather a lot of mail to take in to account my colleagues slow work pace. We also had to do extra sorting that day, delaying us even further. The line manager I spoke to was trying to talk over me and convince me we should complete, but I knew we would be very late finishing. Eventually an agreement was met and we still finished late. The next morning I went in to speak to our usual line manager I was diplomatic in telling him that my colleague worked at rather slow pace and I also said that I thought that the mail we had to leave was more than would normally be left, due to this and the extra sorting we had to do. He said he look in to it for me. later that morning I was taken in to the office by the line manager who I had agreed the cut-off with, the day before. He said he had been told to challenge me over the amount of mail left with a view to possible conduct. He said that what I had left was not what was agreed. By the end of the conversation he said there appeared to have been a misunderstanding and he would discuss with the DOM where to take things. My colleague was also interviews, separately. As a result of that mornings meetings and again having to do extra sorting we were then at a point of being very delayed. I was upset about what had happened that morning and felt unable to face more confrontation and so we completed and finished extremely late.

This last week, again there has been extra pressure (although my usual colleague had returned) with extra indoor workload. We agreed cut-offs with line managers on two of the days. By Friday I had noticed managers were in a meeting with the DOM. I suspected that things would take a different turn and they did. During sorting we (approx 10 staff) were being glared at with hostility by a line manger. On return to prepare our deliveries, managers were stationed in and around us simply glaring, without speaking. We did not cut-off as no extra sorting that day, but others who have delivery issued were cajoled in working over there time by overbearing line managers. The DOM was postitioned near to where my colleague and I were working, watching us. She then came over to me and told me that I had triggered a stage 3 disciplinary (which can result in dismissal). I was totally shocked and said I didn’t understand why? I felt I was being persecuted. I ended up feeling anxious and close to tears and told her I thought that what was going on in the office was appalling and that she was responsible for using intimidation. I told her I’d had enough and left the office and I am now off with stress.

During a conversation between my male manager and myself, he tells me that “there’s no need to become emotional”!
This statement… Made me angry, the more I thought about it!
We were discussing why he overrid my decision about one of my associates who is also male. I told my manager, that he does not know the needs of my department (we are a specialy state licensed department) that he should have discussed things with me before approving what was already denied. That this person had lied to him to get what he wanted. I asked him how many times, has this person ever come to him for anything? This associate is a man who does not like to be questioned on something that he has done or not done. He talks trash about me, and his coworkers. He call others at the other locations and bad mouths us to them. People at the other locations as well as his coworkers are afraid of this man.
I believe my associate is a bully! What can I do?

Bullies are cowards at heart. They are the predators that seek out the weakest member of the herd and wait until that individual is alone and even more helpless.

3 years ago I left my job, because two of my coworkers were throwing away papers and information that I had left for my boss. I would put it in the bosses’ In Box and within 20-30 minutes it was gone. This was particularily traumatic because the culprit was my sick stepdaughter. They eventually took my timesheets and it cost me my final paycheck. My boss never even asked about it because she was so busy covering for them having believed all of their lies and I really don’t know what all was said.

This was a job I really loved and initially Pat had suggested that she would like me to be the nurse for the company to the end of it’s days. After I quit, I had surgery and was pretty much out of commission for the next 4 months, and because my stepdaughter was the culprit, I decided to let it drop. She did not drop anything though as she went on and on about what she perceived me to have done. My husband knew that she was lying – eventually.

A couple of years later. Pat fired this stepdaughter – and asked me to come back. Since this was a position that I truly enjoyed I agreed to it.

It has started up again. This time, the office manager, who can act like a great person when the boss is around is a total tyrant when she is not around. Most recently my husband’s mother died. The group sent the usual card. The next day another coworker’s mother died. The group sent the usual card. One week later, the office manager got everyone together and decided to send the coworker flowers – even asked for my share to pay for them – and totally disregarded my recent loss. I didn’t get any explanation, just the bill.

My question is, given that my boss does not really know the full circumstances, should I let her know? I want to, but like before it might take her years to figure it out.

By the by, this is a medical establishment in Minnesota, just an FYI, for those of you who think that medicine is so great in Minnesota. A rule of thumb here, is that Minnesota Nurses eat their young. Tragically I have seen some of the worst nurses ever produced are educated right here in Minnesota.

My supervisor told all the nurses that anyone who was educated in this country was stupid because she could recite the periodic table. The medical director asked my patients if they wanted a black nurse with me standing there. The chaplain told me that I needed to get with the program and change my religion. And the social worker who was from Somalia told me that I was a fat obnoxious Republican and white women don’t need to eat. I was the oldest and only white Catholic employee of this national hospice. I am a former military officer and I am but never told anyone I am a Republican.

I was verbally abused by a co-worker and called very vulgar names in the presence of other co-workers and this was done because I had done well in my job by securing some significant business for the company. I complained to my boss and requested a meeting with the employee and he very adamantly rejected my request to have a meeting with the employee to corroborate my complaint and to work things out. He also behaved very inappropriately with this employee in front of the staff and the same co-worker would spend hours in his office behind closed doors. After I complained to him about the continued verbal harassment by this employee, my boss began sending threatening and humiliating emails to me. The cyber bulling continued so much that it adversely affected my health. The harassment was so painful that I changed from being very confident and successful in my work to being fearful and depressed all the time. As my boss’s position was higher than that of the HR Manager, a complaint to HR would not be worthwhile so I quit my job. I had lots of documentation and written evidence acknowledging verbal and cyber bullying from my boss and co-worker, but the adverse effects to my health was not worth pursuing a law suit. Although leaving the job put a financial strain on my family, it turned my life around mentally and physically and it has brought a lot of sunshine to the lives of my family and me. We don’t have conversations of the bullying I suffered at work any more. For anyone who thinks that they can’t leave a workplace harassment situation because of economic reasons, please think of it like marriage where you are being physically abused and you have to put yourself first and get out. Websites like this one are a great outlet and make sure to tell everyone about the bully.

Thank you for validating what targets go through. I look forward to the day we aren’t blamed for our predicament. I’m being mobbed by a bully boss and co-worker. First, they made up lies about my performance to take away all of my duties except menial tasks. They have mocked, isolated, and restricted my access to tools I need for the job. I have been physically intimidated by them and my boss is now humiliating me by making me report to my co-workers when I use the bathroom. She is a snake who does her dirty work in secret and has “impression-managed” me behind my back to other staff to lead them to believe I am a problem employee. She hasn’t written me up; she’d rather harrass me to the point of quitting than fire me. I’ve hung on for years because I need the income and benefits. My confidence is at an all-time low. I seek out support in the self-help community only to be told I “allow the bully to get to me” or that I am doing something to trigger this behavior. These people haven’t been terrorized at work or else they were able to find new jobs before the situation deteriorated. I wouldn’t wish this on anyone. I don’t want sympathy, I just want the “blame the victim” mentality to stop.