Poll: Ever Been Bullied at Work?

Our recent BNET feature, Is the Office Bully Back? has garnered beaucoup comments from readers who have experienced workplace bullying and harassment first-hand. Some the most interesting -- let us not say "best" -- are included below the poll.

So what about it? Have you ever been the victim -- or the perp -- of bullying at the office? If so, get it off your chest and share your experience, along with what you learned, with your fellow BNET readers, and take the poll. [poll id=21]

kjpparker laments:

I was bullied by my manager... for about a year. I repeatedly went to HR to no avail. It became so miserable I had to quit. In my exit interview they said I did agree with my managers management style. I was the 6th person to leave because of this manager in less then a year and 1/2. This woman even assaulted an employee by grabbing her and pulling her because she was talking to another employee too long and HR still did not get it. I wish I could have sued them , but like this story says it is very hard to explain let alone prove. I hope businesses will start recognizing they are loosing alot of valuable people and money. Businesses need to start taking this seriously.

I was 26 years old, working for a Fortune 500 company... and was bullied by a co-worker. I went to my manager, her manager, multiple times, my HR department, and each time it was always something that delayed enforcing company policy on the bully. A co-worker who had worked for [the same company] for 15 years told me I was the first person to stand up to her -- the bully. Many young girls were previously in my position and all since left because of the bully. I am still disgusted in how "politically correct" people were and how afraid management was of the bully.

I was a victim of workplace bullying. It took the whole office putting in their resignation to get rid of the bully. It did happen and the organization is much better for it. The bully is still in contact with the organization and is happier in their new position of working for themselves.

Well, I went through a phase when I was a bully! The situation arose when my senior line manager... created a situation where her direct reports... were encouraged to compete with each other for kudos, resources, her approbation, etc.

In responding to this, I and the other mangers, pushed our respective people harder and harder, to the point where we all stepped over the line.

The scary thing was that none of us realized what was happening until after we moved to other parts of the organization or left entirely.

It is not something I am proud of.