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Here is my story. A story of bullying in the workplace that I have shared with so many who have been the target of either isolation, humiliation, intimidation and ridicule. Those 4 points are the main factors of victimization in the world of employment. Workplace Bullying still stands today as an epidemic that has not enough recognition or denied that it actually exists.

In the adult world, one would expect people to act grown up, decent and professional. Sadly, the reality is a lot harsher than the pecking order of the school playground. The workplace presents older bigots who either started as school bullies or just have an unresolved nasty streak that makes them the way they are.

This blog entry is merely an edited down and summarized account of what I went through. I kept a journal that would warrant a movie trilogy and prequel if I sold the film rights to it. I will one day make that journal public as a release maybe as a series.



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My Workplace Bullying story dates back to my old school job between 2001 and 2006. My post lasted 5 years, and so did the abuse.

I worked at a secondary school as a TA. I was there to help kids, encourage better behavior and make their school life much easier. I was living the dream, until a build-up of sabotage and stumbling blocks thrown in my way ruined it all for me and even nearly 9-years on I can’t shake the hurt, hatred and malice I feel towards (and about) my aggressor.

The person in description was higher-up than me and only slightly. Our actual head of department was good to all of us and even helped get me the job.

I did my job to the best of my ability, but this person was openly xenophobic towards anything that didn’t fit in with their self-built perfect world. She decided I had no place in it, and therefore no part in the school.

Despite differences in background I tried my best to co-exist with the colleague. It just didn’t do. Her dislike of me was all that mattered and there began a series of incidents that resulted in me being undermined in front of the children, being spied on, subtle insults, invented problems, lies being spread throughout the staff body.

Trouble is, she was everywhere and knew how to brown-nose everyone from my HoD, The Deputy Heads, and the Principal. It made her seem that she could do no wrong whatsoever. She in a nutshell got away with murder as well as slamming doors, barging me, and stealing stuff from my workdesk.

So much more had happened through the years and to sum up 5 years of the problems would make for a Tolstoy length novel.

When stuff would go missing from my workdesk like mugs, kids work, stationary etc, they would end up in either the staff lounge or even the school meals kitchen with my name rubbed off. I found my mug in the outdoor skip once. I took this as a subtle way of being told I was not welcome in the department office. One day I brought in a padlock as an act of defiance and it got me in trouble with my HoD.

The trouble is. When my HoD disciplined me instead and only, this was picked up and my aggravator knew at that point they were invincible. As said before, “She could do no wrong”.

She wasn’t just nasty to me, she was nasty to particular children and the ones I was assigned with. She was also abusive to a weekly visiting colleague and gotten away with barging her too. I only found out after she witnessed me being abused and we both opened up. The assault was gone unpunished and the visiting colleague departed not just because of the unpleasantness, but also because her husband died. It was a couple of weeks after, my aggressor was berating this person to others at an out-of-school gathering. I quietly left the event early in utter disgust. She got away with that too…

The later years were getting worse. Nothing I said mattered.. I was still greeted with the rolling eyes and “hmmphs” as I entered the office every morning. The going became depressing, and even though my main focus was turning up every day, doing my thing and going home at the end – things were not allowed to be that simple.
Another strange series of events involved namedropping my relatives in conversations with other people in a way I could overhear it. Creepy right? Someone had been doing background checks maybe…

Hatred, Discrimination and Xenophobia ruled the roost.

More incidents occurred with other brown-nosed staff taking her side. Stuff going missing, being set up, being put down to and in front of the kids, and generally undermined every way possible. It built up a profile of me as someone who is not a team player and had to go.

An acceptance letter into University arrived in the post. 4 months before leaving the job I decided enough was enough and it was time to move on. My HoD helped me out with applying on the office computer and even my aggressor tried to make any excuse to distract her from that. I did nothing to this person except for have an existence.

My last week was a week of hell and even though I walked out on the job early, my HoD convinced me to ride out the remaining days. I did that. Had a mere “yeah bye” like farewell after 5 years and beyond service to the school and that was it. Or so I thought…

Summer Vacation came, but my final months pay didn’t. I waited out for a while and nothing. I called the school and they claimed they paid me everything I was owed. I effectively worked my final month for free and didn’t receive my final summer pay either. I had no proof, but to this day I believe this person slithered into to the bursary (like they did everywhere else) and made sure I was cut off. Even when I left the job, the hurt continued and financially. It feel like once more act of spite with the tracks covered. Claims court would have worked out even more expensive.

University started and it took a while to adapt to. I was still angry, poor and miserable after my in vain job experience. It was around that Fall/Autumn timeframe various kids I worked with were searching for me on Myspace and Deviantart etc to tell me how bad things had gone since I left.

It turned out my HoD left on medical absence, with the “lovechild of Hitler and Stalin” taking the helm. She went on a crazy power trip. Kids I thought hard to keep in the school were expelled or left miserably. Those who stayed and endured told me everything including my name being dragged through the mud. In Caesars absence, Brutus was unstoppable.

Being told all this made my blood boil. University got busy and I moved on as best as I could. I was told by my wife it was no longer my problem as if I should forget the past half-decade.

Almost 9-years on this person still manifests in my head trying to bring out my anger like they did in person. I now have kids of my own and have tried to move on. Every now and then I feel taunted with thoughts of revenge and seeking out ways of ridding myself this person once and for all.

Hold up…

All I wanted to do at the beginning was to help kids. Why should that change to thoughts of wanting revenge on someone who is obviously more consumed with hatred than I am?

It’s simple. There is a difference between ‘Us’ and ‘Them’. We must become like Them or even more ‘Them’ than ‘Them’.
So I find this Facebook site about Workplace Bullying and it helped reading about other peoples ordeals and events. It has convinced

So pardon my French as I publicly declare: Witch! You’ve lived in my head rent-free long enough. Its time you were rebuked like the demon you are. Its time you stay out of my life completely and its sure going to suck to be you when your day before The Almighty happens (it makes my own feel less worrying). My joy present and future will not be robbed…

I have been taking the advice of ‘Stop Workplace Bullies’ and seeking out help. This should have been dealt with a long time ago. Nobody should carry baggage around with them into future endeavors. Sometimes we must cut losses to gain something better in place.

I hope my story inspires or encourages others. The many other places I have shared this have responded in kind. The fight continues for me, but I know the right paths to take. I will be coming back strong and hopefully in a position to lay some 'hurtin' bombs' on Workplace Bullies in general. Nobody should ever go through what I and many others did.

#fightingback.