Her boss was out to get her.
His work was treated with disdain.
Her confidence is shattered.
He is feeling anxious, depressed, angry and paranoid.
Her friends and family have turned away.

They just left a job from hell.  

And they are not alone.  According to the International Labor Organization, “bullying” – targeting
employees for intimidation – is among American workers’ fastest-growing complaints.  So what is
workplace bullying? It is a form of emotional abuse. Like other forms of violence in a relationship, it is
based on power and domination. Emotional abuse is words or deeds that denigrate others, harm their
spirit, destroy their reputation, infringe upon their dignity, compromise their integrity, or pollute the climate
of an organization. Abuse is designed to control and subjugate another person through fear, humiliation,
and verbal put-downs. The mistreatment is psychological violence, a mix of verbal and strategic assaults
to prevent the target of the abuse from performing work well. Because it prevents work from getting done,
it runs counter to an employer’s legitimate business interests. Gary Namie of the Workplace Bully and
Trauma Institute (WBTI), says a bully puts her or his personal agenda of controlling another human being
above the needs of the employer.

This type of mistreatment includes behaviors such as belittling publicly, yelling or shouting, and simply
ignoring the individual. These behaviors have consequences that are well documented and result in wide-
ranging side effects from psychosomatic diseases and long-term stress-related illness to cardiac arrest
leading to billions of dollars lost to increased health insurance, sick leave, absenteeism and churn rates.

A bully is more likely to be a woman than a man, since 58% are women, 42 % men.  Women are also
much more likely to be targets.  According to the 2003 WBTI survey, half of all bullying is woman-on-
woman and 30% is men-on -women.    Bullies become bullies through personality development, by
reading cues in a competitive highly politicized workplace, and by accident. The victims of bullying are
more likely to be women than men, and tend to be non-confrontational, competent people.  

So what breeds this type of culture in a company?  Workplace abuse does not occur in a vacuum.  Nor
does it develop suddenly.  There is a slow erosion of life-affirming values to the point where abuse in the
workplace is viewed as normal.  It usually comes from the top of the organization – from people who
decide it is acceptable to do whatever it takes to succeed, even if it is at the expense of their employees.  
Greed, the excessive desire to acquire more than what one needs or deserves, then filters its way down.  
Someone on high gives permission for the bully to be a bully and to do whatever it takes for the company
to succeed.  

A classic example in the collegiate sports industry is Bobby Knight, the men’s head basketball coach at
Texas Tech, who, before that, guided Indiana University to three national championships… and was kept
on at Indiana for 30 years, despite repeatedly physically and emotionally attacking his players, kicking his
own son during a game, stuffing a fan into a trashcan during another, and throwing a chair onto the court
in a rage.  Why was he kept on?  Because only a winning coach of a championship team could attract the
financial rewards of radio and television contracts.  And sports is, after all, about making money.

Can you identify if you have a workplace bully in your organization?

The following is the workplace bully checklist of warning signs that could be affecting your company’s
bottom line.