Of all the things we thought we'd seen the last of when we left school and went to work, bullying is the nastiest. And the hardest to stamp out.
The Samaritans reminded us this week that one in four people have been bullied in the workplace. One in four. That means that a lot of people are suffering, and a lot of adults are indulging in the kind of behaviour that we would punish children for: verbal or physical abuse and public humiliation.
But workplace harassment, also known as mobbing, goes further than unpleasantness and aggression - it can have consequences for your career. Victims of bullying complain of being overloaded with work, passed over for promotion or threatened with the sack.
If you are unlucky enough to be bullied at work, there is much sensible advice available. You should talk to your union rep, manager or someone in HR, keep a diary of all related incidents and then make a formal complaint. Good luck to you.
But prevention is better than cure. It would be healthier to maintain a caring, sharing, bully-free work environment in the first place, if such a thing were possible. A swift internet search reveals plenty of well-intentioned anti-bullying initiatives, some involving wearing pink T-shirts or furry green slippers. Maybe the companies that support International Stand Up to Bullying day or Ban Bullying at Work day genuinely feel they are tackling the problem. But can we ever beat the bullies this way?
Do you have any more practical ideas for banishing the bullies, and have you ever worked somewhere that managed to stamp out a bullying problem? Meanwhile, take the Samaritans' test to see how healthy your workplace is.
