Workplace Bullying Changed My Life

I created my own strategies for responding to the bully. I stopped defending myself and reacting to the bullying. I became deliberate and intentional about what I said, how I said it, and I even learned how to effectively shut down the workplace bully. In doing so, I reduced the traumatic effects of workplace bullying. I protected myself, and I started to rebuild confidence in myself.

I also started asking different questions. Instead of asking, What am I doing to cause this? I started asking:

• Why is the bully bullying?

• Why aren't leaders intervening?

• Why did coworkers join in or stay silent?

• Why did reporting often make things worse?

• Why did the advice people were given so often fail?

I used my background in sociology and social work, along with my lived experience, to answer those questions and examine workplace bullying through the lens of group dynamics, organizational culture, and power.

That journey led me to a different understanding of workplace bullying. It didn't happen because of who I was or something I did. It happened because I worked in a place where workplace bullying was normalized, bullies were rewarded, coworkers chose inaction to get ahead, and leaders allowed it to continue.

And that is why I am on a mission today: to stop workplace bullying and help people just like you shift from reacting in survival mode to responding to bullying at work with self-trust and deliberate actions that reduce harm.

Because the most important person you have to protect in the workplace is YOU!