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Friends and readers.Hot on the heels of the Daily Express and its front page bullying article comes the Guardian. In todays edition 03-08-06 the Guardian asks the question -ARE YOU A BULLY-. The verdict handed down has been celebrated as a belated recognition of the perinious presence of bullying in the workplace.

Patrick Barkham the author of the article, goes on to say. The international conference on workplace bullying held at Trinity College Dublin in June was told that 100 people kill themselves every year because of bullying. The tactics of the playground can be reapeated in the workplace.

All kinds of workplaces-from city firms to the army of fast food outlets[Hannah Kirkham,18 committed suicide after being tormented and stabbed in the arm with cornsticks while working for KFC] - may be home to bullying. But now they have to do something about it.

The 1997 Protection from harassment act-dubbed the stalker act-is now being used by employment lawyers to combat workplace bullying. Last month a judgement by five law lords created a new way for people to sue their employers for damages over bullying.

Previously,it was difficult to bring bullying cases to court because workers had to prove both that their employers knew or should have known they were being bullied and that the bullying caused psychiatric illness. Now employers can be vicariously liable for bullying by employees even if management is unaware of it.

This is great news for all those being bullied at work,at last the law has recognised the seriousness of bullying in the workplace and the blind eye that is being turned to it. We as you know have been activly campaigning against workplace bullying and we will continue,it seems the message is getting home. the case we have been highlighting of the MUIRHOUSE TWO now takes a twist. probability is enough to set the ball rolling and there is more than probability in this case.

For to long workplace bullying has not been seen as a problem,all that is now finished. Both the Daily Express and the Guardian,followed by the Daily Mail and even The News Of The World have highlighted bullying in the workplace,once the papers have got a hold of it and realise the extent of the problem they will have a field day.

Our own papers the Evening News and the Scotsman once informed may well  want to know of the extent of bullying in the workplace. Our website is available to both and we await the call.

Depression, Suicide attempts, systematic destruction of people in the workplace is without doubt a crime. This is the effect workplace bullying has on people and those that know and still do nothing are as guilty as the bully themselves.

Previously we reported that the Muirhouse bully was well known for his terrible behaviour yet it seems nothing was done to prevent him harming others. What kind of working enviroment is that colusion in bullying then pleading innocence in knowing anything about it.

Well sit up and take notice for the doomsday scenario could well be coming your way. Saying we did not know is not good enough, attacking the victim is not on, allowing the bully to go unpunished is guilt by stealth. The game is up best come clean and use the broom to sweep clean before the law does it for you.  

Friends and readers. You will remember that we asked you to keep an eye out or ear open for bullies in the greater Pilton community. Well suprise, suprise a number of people have come forward voicing their concerns about what has been going on at Muirhouse Social Work Centre. And, lo and behold, a former employee has contacted us to say that he to was bullied and as he put it forced out the door by the MUIRHOUSE BULLY.

That is in itself a sad reflection of what has been going on at the Muirhouse Social Work Centre. We do not have the words that would reflect our disgust at this type of behaviour, only to repeat what a senior manager told us, that he would kick ass if this type of behavior was found out to be going on.

Well sir what more do you need to take action, we will happily furnish you with the persons name and details and you can take it from there. We await contact

Friends and readers. We continue to monitor the happenings at the social work department, and our source has told us that developments regarding the activities of the MUIRHOUSE BULLY will soon be brought to a head.

He also told us that a council official has been asked by some senior councillors to find out the extent of bullying within the social work department. He is led to understand that a senior councillor is furious and that in his words will not accept any kind of cover up and will kick ass if there is.

So dear friends it seems the tangled travesty at Muirhouse Social Work Department is reaching the hallowed halls of the council chamber, we at Pilton sucks.com will monitor this situation with interest and hope for developments, it would seem from all that we know the bully has bitten off more than he can chew as the victim in this awful situation has allies in high places, who also wish to put a stop to bullying where ever it takes place.

As we have already reported the muirhouse bully has a history of bad behaviour, and you will have seen and read that other people are now aware of this dreadful situation and are less than happy about it. The community was awash with rumours about the absense of the victim from his many community interests, but they to now know what has happened, and are in full support of their friend and colleague.

What is to be learned from this dreadful episode, well- we can as a society demand bullying be removed not just from the school enviroment, but from the workplace as well. Much has been said and written abut school place bullying and action has been taken, but just like workplace bullying it was hidden until it was brought to the publics attention, now it is deemed to be completly unaceptable and rightly so.

Workplace bullying must be treated in the same way, not hidden brought out into the public domain and dealt with. These small minded individuals who can destroy peoples lifes must be punished and seen to be punished, not slapped on the back of the hand and told to behave themselves, that will not work, for as many of you know serial bullying is in itself a disease, for which at the moment there seems to be no immediate cure, and as you also know if bullying goes unchecked, it will happen again, who picks the tab up when that happens-the victims-thats who.

So as you go about your daily business spare a thought for those that have suffered and those that continue to suffer, and take action-report it wherever you see it support your colleagues god knows they need it, make sure it does not go unchecked, and fight the bullying syndrome.

So friends and readers be on your guard be alert be watchful make sure you do not become a victim of this terrible sickness. Go on BULLY WATCH.

Graham-Pilton sucks.com associates

Friends and Readers. you are now well aware that PiltonSucks.com is actively running an anti-workplace bullying campaign, and its effects on the victims. As you know we have been covering as best we can the case of the MUIRHOUSE TWO who were bullied into submission by the Muirhouse Social Work Centre Criminal Justice Bully.

We are sorry to say that it has been reported to us, we have to tell you that this was a message passed to us from Shrubhill, so we have no evidence to support it, that one of the MUIRHOUSE TWO is suffering from severe depression as a result of what he experienced at Muirhouse Social Work Centre. We, if this is true are deeply saddened to report this.

When we tried to contact him we were told he would be unable to speak with us such was his state of mind at present.  We are shocked and angered that The Social Work Department must know about this and have as yet not brought the bully to justice. What has to happen before justice is seen to be done, does somebody have to die?   They would probably try to cover that up to.

We were numbed to find out about this, and we would have not been any the wiser if it had not been for our source at Shrubhill, thank you for that and keep us posted.

Will he, the victim, ever be able to trust again who knows.  We at Pilton Sucks.com will keep on the case, we hope his colleagues will support him they must do - they could be next.  Nothing would suprise us about the City of Edinburgh Social Work Department.

What of the other victim of the Muirhouse bully, well he is fighting on and pressing for an independent investigation, as we are and continue to do.  We, like the victims, are in this for the long haul.  We know that it will take time to get justice but we have that, the Muirhouse bully might think he has that, and for the time being he probably has, but it is limited.  Soon it will be made public, as will his name, but then again everybody in the social work department we have contacted knows who it is, and is very aware of the plight of the MUIRHOUSE TWO.

This dear friends is indeed a sorry tale, a tale of bully and victim, a tale of  illness and isolation, also one of protection and cover-up of the sinner while the sinned against, suffers.

What kind of society do we live in, were a so called caring profession allows bullys to thrive unpunished, while the victims have to suffer in silence. If we are to believe that justice willout then we have to see it in action.

WE ARE WATCHING                 

Friends and Readers. As you know we at PiltonSucks.com are running an anti workplace bullying campaign, particularly in our community of Greater Pilton. We have as you know been highlighting the Muirhouse Social Work Centre criminal justice bully,who as you know has escaped justice for a long time, but we will continue to monitor his movements and unacceptable behaviour, as he tries to hide behind his managers skirts, the coward that he is.

All bullies are cowards and look to hide where ever possible as you will know if you have read the articles we have posted, we hope the Muirhouse bully has read them and realises his days of bullying are numbered.   So bully boy if you read this and all the rest of the posts, know that you can run but you cannot hide, you will be caught and punnished for your sins, and there are many of them.

Our source within the department, will she says, watch him like a hawk whenever possible, and she will not be deceived by his smarmy, crawling, tactics, and she has also told us that she has recruited another two whistleblowers to inform of bullying tactics. We have and continue to ask for an enquiry into the Muirhouse Social Work Centre criminal justice team and why they have not had the courage to report the bully when his behaviour has resulted in so much heartache.

He should be excluded from having anything to do with managing people as he is clearly incapable of any kind of people skills and it is clear to every body except his managers that he is a lowlife who feeds on misery other peoples of course.

We once again ask anybody who has suffered at his hands to come forward and contribute to this vile little mans demise. We already have a source at Shrubhill, the social work headquarters and we add to this our source within Muirhouse Social Work Centre.

So beware bully boy we are closer than you think, watch over your shoulder every time you think of misbehaving, because you are being watched, and reported on. Oh and while we are at it do not think you are invisible or bullet proof you are neither,ask John Simpson - remember him, he remembers you, oh yes we know about him to.

[a] Variations include trivialization [this is so trivial it is not worth talking about] and the fresh start tactic [I do not know why you are so intent on dwelling on the past and look what is past is past, i will overlook your behaviour and we will start afresh] - this is an abdication of responsibility by the bully and an attempt to divert and distract attention by using false conciliation. Imagine if this line of defence were available to all criminals. This could do wonders for prison overcrowding.

[b] RETALIATION; THE BULLY COUNTER ATTACKS. The bully quickly and seamlessly follows the denial with an aggressive COUNTER-ATTACK of counter-criticism or counter-allegation, often based on distortion or fabrication.  LYING, DECEPTION, DUPLICITY, HYPOCRISY and BLAME are the hallmarks of this stage.

The purpose is to avoid answering the question and thus avoid accepting responsibilty for their behaviour. Often the target is tempted or coerced-into giving another long explanation to prove the bullys allegation false; by the time the explanation is complete, everybody has forgotten the original question.

Both a and b are delivered with aggression in the guise of assertiveness; in fact there is no assertiveness [which is about recognising and respecting the rights of oneself and others] at all. Note that explanation- of the original question - is conspicuous by its absence.

[c] FEIGNING VICTIMHOOD: In the unlikely event of denial and counter-attack being insufficient the bully FEIGNS VICTIMHOOD or FEIGNS PERSECUTION by manipulating people through their emotions, especially guilt. This commonly takes the form of bursting into tears, which most people cannot handle. Variations include indulgent self-pity, feigning INDIGNATION pretending to be DEVASTATED, claiming they are the one being bullied or harassed, claiming to be deeply offended, melodrama martyrdom [if it was not for me] and a poor-me drama [you do not know how hard it is for me….blah blah blah… and I am the one who always has to… you think you are having a hard time…I am the one being bullied]

Other tactics include manipulating peoples perceptions to portray themselves as the injured party and the target as the villain of the piece. 

A further advantage of the denial/counter-attack/feigning victimhood strategy is that it acts as a provocation. the target who may have taken months to reach this stage, sees their tormenter GETTING AWAY WITH IT [as seems for the time being with the MUIRHOUSE SOCIAL WORK CENTRE BULLY] and is provoked into an angry and emotional outburst after which the bully says simply, There I told you he was like that.  We would urge the MUIRHOUSE TWO to refrain however tempting that may sound into any kind of emotional outburst, that is exactly what the MUIRHOUSE SOCIAL WORK CENTRE BULLY wants.

Anger is one of the mechanisms by which bullies [and all abusers] control their targets. By tapping in to and obtaining an inappropriate release of pent-up anger the bully plays their master stroke and casts their victim as villain.   

Friends and readers. Bullies project their inadequacies, shortcomings, behaviours etc on to other people to avoid facing up to their inadequacy and doing something about it and to distract and divert attention away from themselves and their inadequacies.

Projection is achieved through BLAME, CRITICISM, AND ALLEGATION, once you realise this, every CRITICISM, ALLEGATION, etc thay the bully makes about their target is actually an admission or revelation about themselves.

This knowledge can be used to perceive the bully’s own misdemeanours, for instance when the bully makes allegations of say, negative attitude, it is the bully who has a negative attitude. In these circumstances the bully has to understand that if specious and insubstantive allegations are made, THE BULLY SHOULD ALSO BE INVESTIGATED.

When the symptoms of psychiatric injury become apparent to others as in the case of one of the MUIRHOUSE TWO most bullies will play the mental health trap claiming their target is mentally ill or mentally unstable or has a mental health problem.  It is more likely that this allegation is a projection of the bullys own mental health problems. If this trap is being used on you,  and  we have every reason to suspect it is or will be used on one or both of THE MUIRHOUSE TWO -assert projection as a defence against disciplinary action or as a part of your legal proceedings.

Friends and readers. Serial bullies harbour a particular hatred of anyone who can articulate their behaviour profile, either verbally or in writing, in a manner which helps other people see through their deception and their mask of deceit. The usual instinctive responce is to launch a bitter personal attack on the persons credentials, lack of qualifications, and right to talk about personality disorders, psychopathic personality etc, whilst preserving their right to talk about any thing they choose - all the while adding nothing to the debate themselves.

Friends and readers. Because of the serial bullys Jekyll and Hyde nature, complusive lying, charm and plausibility THE VALIDITY OF THIS PERSONS TESTIMONY CANNOT BE RELIED ON IN DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS, APPEAL HEARINGS AND UNDER OATH AT TRIBUNAL AND IN COURT.

Mediation with this type of individual is inappropriate. Serial bullies such as THE MUIRHOUSE BULLY regard mediation [and arbitration, conciliation, negotiation etc] as appeasement, which they ruthlessly exploit, it allows them to give the impression in public that they are negotiating and being conciliatory, whilst in private they continue the bullying. The lesson of the twentieth century is that YOU DO NOT APPEASE AGGRESSORS.

Friends and readers. Some criminals [bullies] are smooth rather than contentious, ingratiating rather than surly, devious rather than intimidating. They pretend to be interested in what others say, appearing to invite suggestions, they inwardly dismiss each idea without considering its merits.

They seem to take criticism in stride but ignore it and spitefully make mental note of who the critic was.  They misuse authority and betray trust but are not blatant about doing so.  With the criminal [bully] at the helm, employee morale deteriorates - just ask the MUIRHOUSE TWO - AND THE OTHERS HE HAS GOTTEN RID OF.

His method of operation sooner or later discourages others from proposing innovative ideas and developing creative solutions.