Workplace Bullying and the Threat of Physical Violence | Claire Hunt | clairehuntonline 

Claire, your videos got me threw a serious bout of bullying. It was during my final internship for my master's degree and I was bullied by another intern. False accusations had the head, my CT, the intern's supervisor (who is a bull of bullies) pull me into countless meetings where I was told to apologize (which I never did). This other intern was so damned jealous, she did anything she could to get me out. Thank god I found your videos in my research. I read each of your essays and watched all videos to date. You were a pillar and in the end, I pulled through. Towards the end, it got so bad I refused to leave the classroom I was interning in because each time I went out into the school, this intern would see me and then make up some lies like I had stared at her (when she clearly was the one staring) or that I gave her a dirty look (which I never would have done since I believe in professionalism despite personal feelings). I didn't go to the washroom between 9am and 3pm and held it till I got home, just to give you an idea. Also, I love that you named "crotch busting". When I taught in Japan, my American male boss (who was married) would come up to my desk when I was seated and stand so close next to me with his crotch facing my head. Because he was 6" tall or more, his crotch would be the same height as my face. I could not believe that he had done that several times in our tiny office of 3 people: Me, him and his Japanese wife. That said, I have had far more women bully me than men--you are so right about women. Even though I haven't been bullied in the workplace in about a year now, I apply your logic to other areas of my life (like my histrionic neighbor who tried to get me evicted). Somehow, I pull through all attempts at evicting or making me quit and I come out victorious each time (which they HATE). I want to say THANK YOU for being so incredibly spot-on in your analysis with wit and wisdom included.

God is throwing some good content my way as of late.

I work for government for the last 30 years and have changed departments within the same place 3 times. The first department I was sexually harassed. I filed a law suit with other employees and won. But not really because I continued to be bullied until they moved me to another department which had mean girls in it, until I was used as a pawn and thrown under the bus only to be tossed to another sick jealous evil person. I want to leave, believe me but word in my profession gets around and they have bad mouthed me to everyone they could. Confirmed by some employee I currently work with. I’m not young enough to start over but not old enough to quit. Just exhausted by all of this. I realize now that it is the culture of the place. It’s almost as if they groom them. If you are not with the mob you are made miserable till you want to quit or worse 😢 Any types of help you can convey to me I will appreciate😔

I worked at McDonalds for 7 years at this one building. I couldn't get another job because I was suffering severe neck issues with paralysis, but I had no help. I had 2 managers grab me by the throat, unrelated, different years. A manager threw an unlanded punch to my face. I felt the air. I had a gay man throw punches to the back of my head to impress his friends. I saw his reflection in the window as I changed out his register. I had a young man touch my boob twice. Years later he actually apologized. I had an older man telling me lying stories to scare me, and begin to say sexually inappropriate things. I spoke up and he was fired, but my boss was angry at me for it because she had no choice. Many people were fired for laying hands on me or harassing me. And the more people who got fired the more people there hated me. Nobody cared about my side of the story, ever, even when they knew I was innocent. They isolated me, cold shouldered me. They called me bitch, pretending I was in jail. They lunged at me, ran into me, sabotaged me, threatened to take me to the parking lot, stalked me, threatened me, amazing they didn't murder me. Morning after morning they would pass me like I wasn't there after I said good morning, and go to their friends and celebrate each other. But I was too disabled to leave, and not disabled enough to get a diagnoses, or paid enough to go back to the doctor enough times to get something figured out. I finally quit, failed to find another job, and was rehired at another McDonalds closer to home where I worked 2 years/4 months. They simply would not transfer me LOL. But I was the best worker there, and won manager of the year twice. As disabled as I was I was running circles around able bodied adults. The new place was only a little better. One man began to sexually harass me, and another woman. He was "transferred" to my old store where they promoted him to be assistant manager. Another young man carelessly ran past me, hit me in the face with his shoulder, and hurt my neck to the point I could no longer hold up my head without my hand. I worked this way 40 hours a week for months and months. I could barely walk. And I still couldn't get disability, still had bills to pay. Yet, I still did better than other workers. The boy acted like he was offended that I might be mad the day it happened. He didn't know if I was, didn't ask, didn't apologize. Didn't see if I was okay. I forgave, but he and his friends give me zero, zero acknowledgment. Some of the friends from the last store found their way to mine, and continued to bully me. They made no secret that they felt they deserved more pay, a better position than me, because I was clearly a goblin. She and her boyfriend belittled me, underestimated me. I did absolutely nothing to any of these people other than not let them beat on and humiliate me. They would lie about me to their friends, and their friends love them, and hated me for no reason. I was endlessly mobbed. I was a little shift manager and my boss made me submit to them. I asked a pregnant lady to "push brew", the ONLY thing I asked her to do that morning she kept complaining I was making her do too much (i wasn't), and I got in trouble. And what makes it harder is I had a very abusive upbringing. Nobody cared, they didn't care.

Your so right about workplace bullies being cowards, I didn't experience actual physical violence but when my bully coworker kicked off with me one day there was an instant where he lunged at me but because I didn't back down he backed down instead and tried to play it down like he had no intention of doing anything. I glad looking back that I didn't back down because I know it would of been game over for me because every time I had a disagreement, argument, or called him out on something he would have used similar threats of violence to secure dominance and control over me.