Bully Blocking at Work: A Self-Help Guide for Employees and Managers

Evelyn M. Field

Private practising psychologist, Melbourne

No one goes to work to be humiliated, abused, ostracised, subjected to rumours, or assaulted. Yet this is the reality of a working day for more than one in six workers. Bullying causes billions of dollars in lost productivity, expensive mistakes, employee replacement costs, and health and welfare rehabilitation expenses. Most workplaces currently have few resources and systems to deal with the problem, leaving the victims to sink or swim, and the bullies to remain professionally incompetent. Few understand that bullying is not tough management or an aggressive personality trait to be suffered. Severe and unremitting bullying catapults the victim into such a damaging emotional state that it can lead to the breakdown of their very survival mechanisms. Bully Blocking at Work reveals for the first time the true evil nature of workplace bullying, helping the reader to understand its toxic, destructive impact on all employees - whether they are targets, bullies or onlookers - and provides advice for coping and confronting bullying, from both a personal and organisational perspective. The author has worked as a psychologist for over thirty years and has spent many hours listening to clients, conducting interviews, reading, speaking and writing about workplace bullying. Sprinkled liberally throughout the pages are quotes from the many sufferers of bullying that the author has personally worked with over many years.