Danielle McQueen, 11 May 2007
Although the majority of office bullying takes place between co-workers, there is also a worrying number of workers in Britain that are being treated badly by their bosses and managers.





Research carried out by Wayne Hochwarter, a professor from Florida State University found that of the people they surveyed, 31% of respondents had been given the ‘silent treatment’ by their bosses and 37% said that their boss and failed to give them credit where it was due.  A further 27% said that negative comments had been made about then to other employees or managers. 

So how can you tell if you are a victim of bullying by you boss?  If any of the following sound familiar then the answer is probably yes.

• Are you humiliated in front of others and/or ridiculed?



• Are you excessively supervised and monitored?



• Does your boss often take credit for your work?



• Are you set impossible to meet targets and deadlines?



• At the opposite end, is your work being increasingly taken away from you and mundane tasks being given to you?

These are all signs that you may be being bullied by your boss.  So what can you do?  It is a difficult situation to find yourself in as dealing with problems with co-workers would sometimes involve talking to your boss, which is obviously not relevant in this case.  Therefore you should talk to your HR manager or your union representative if you have one.  You shouldn’t try and take the bullying lightly, hoping that it will go away, if you do this then the chances are it will just continue. 

You should also make a list of all the incidents that you feel are detrimental to you and your work.  This will make it easier if you decide to bring action against your boss as you will have proof of the wrongdoing, especially if you have witnesses.

Bullying can lead to insecurity, feelings of helplessness and depression.  No matter who you are being bullied by, you should not tolerate it and take steps to stop your bosses bad behaviour.