Upfront

Oh yes, it’s in the news and, let’s face it, getting bullied is not much fun but there’s a breed abroad that certainly needs taming – the bully as victim. 

They have a full arsenal of bullied words, harassment, persecution, stress, but most of all and above all else, bullying.

Remember when you were back in the playground and that loathsome kid used to go to the teacher to “tell”?

If you don’t let me play.  If I don’t get the next go.  If I’m not in your team……Some kids were born whining their rights and demanding them by setting the system on you.

Then they grew up and, having manipulated mummy and daddy, teachers and the whole damned world, they set about using those marvels of the modern workplace HR in support of their cause.

Grievances are their stock in trade.  Anybody tries to get them to work harder, more effectively or even by the rules and they are out of the blocks bringing a grievance. 

This is often preceded by a stint signed off with stress.  That sets the situation up nicely.  There’s nothing HR is more scared of than the employee suffering from stress.

No matter that their line managers or colleagues are driven insane by their machinations, that the whole place begins to fall apart for lack of a good slap (metaphoric, of course), the victim as bully is in the ascendancy.  Untouchable, unstoppable, unsackable.

Meetings are arranged, conciliation confounds common sense.  The stress sufferer smirks, while the formerly sane tear out their hair.  Well respected managers bury their heads in their hands as they watch the "cordon sanitaire" close around their nemesis.

Colleagues move on, companies count the cost of spurious unfair dismissals but the victim as bully knows that they will keep their jobs when all about them are losing theirs.  It’s a strategy that seldom fails.

But it’s not fair and I’m going to tell!

Patricia McLoughlin

Categories

• lifestyle
• Bully
• Grievances

Take Action

• Login or register to post comments