Target
The most destructive thing about office bullies is that they tend to target co-workers as i have had the misfortune to witness. It is not much different than school yard bullying this target was not the kid with the Coke-bottle glasses.
Instead,workplace bullies tend to drive out colleagues they view as threats:those who are technically competent,independant,possess good social skills and have strong ethics[and thus may be whistleblowers]
Targets tend to be reluctant to report bullying, primarily for fear of retribution, but also because they run the risk of being labeled a whiner or a snitch,or losing their job outright if the bully is their superior.
Although the bully might wish you to strike out and thereby face losing your job victims commit fewer than one in ten acts of workplace violence.
Unfortuatly if the stress of facing a tormenter at work every day becomes to much the bullied may eventually snap.
Most targets are as equally likely to commit suicide as violence to others. They turn inward,they blame themselves thay become more depressed, they have post-traumatic stress. It is more like domestic violence,where my own work experience is. Targets will often say they’ve been raped,intellectual rape.
I write this with deep regret as I witnessed bullying and did not come forward to report what i seen and heard. I to agree with the previous writer that the victim of the Muirhouse bully is a shadow of the person he once was.
I have left the profession and now work in private practice,and i am ashamed that I done nothing to help someone who has suffered greatly. I am sorry deeply sorry for my cowardice,but it has taught me a lesson, stamp on workplace bullying immediatly or potentially lives could be at risk.
Carol.