Bullying by Leaving You Out - What to Do?

       By: Abbey Whitehall
Posted: 2008-01-26 03:57:12
What would you do if the bully leaves you out? Do you shrink away like you don't matter, or do you say something? After reading this article, you may want to rethink your approach.Beverly's Dilemma - Everyone in the office, from the boss down was taking shots at Beverly. The supervisor, Joan, regularly denied her requests for lunch breaks when she wanted them. Instead she would make Beverly go after everyone else took theirs. She was so intimidated that she never left the office for lunch anymore. She ate at her desk to avoid the critical "face" and words from Joan. None of the other workers were required to check in or out with Joan.Along with this, Joan nit-picked at Beverly's performance on the job, often complaining to the other workers about her. Beverly was as competent as anyone else, and made mistakes just like the others, yet Joan gossiped about her.The Stage Was Set - So the boss made it clear to everyone Beverly was less of a person than everyone else, with questionable judgement. Her attitude set the stage for other bullies there to step up and bully her as well. Debbie was a bully known for her Jeckle and Hyde, one minute she's your best friend, the next, she's ripping you apart-type of bully.Debbie Bullies By Excluding - So Debbie stepped in to bully Beverly one lunch time. There were six women with desks adjacent to each other. Debbie and Beverly were among them.Debbie wanted to order lunch out, so she proceeded to quietly take orders from everyone except Beverly. Beverly kept her head down, as if she was looking through her files for something. She felt shocked and hurt Debbie would go to these lengths to exclude her.Debbie quietly collected money from the other women and Beverly pretended not to notice.You could have heard a pin drop.When lunch arrived, Beverly left to heat up the lunch she brought from home. She didn't want to suffer further humiliation by watching the others eat. The rest of the afternoon, she re-tasted her lunch, and felt like crying.What would you have done in Beverly's situation? Would you have spoken up or repeat what Beverly did?Here are some ideas:1) First, her boss has no business gossiping to Beverly's coworkers about her. At any hint of it, she needs to ask her boss not to do this. She can ask her boss to come directly to her with any grievances about her. It gives her boss a chance to air what's on her mind, and gives Beverly an opportunity to explain herself. In private. She has the right to ask for that.2) Beverly needs to politely, calmly ask her boss why she's the only one who has to report to her about her lunch schedule. No one else does. Why the discrepancy?3) And last, but not least, when the group tries to exclude her next time, she needs to speak up and show that she notices, and makes a choice about whether or not she wants to join the activity. She doesn't let them make the choice for her. For example, next time something like this happens, she might say, "Oh, you're taking orders for take-out. I'd order, but I brought my lunch today." And be as uninvolved as she can possibly muster. Or, "I see you're taking orders for lunch. Could I order too?" Or, "Great! I was wondering what I was going to eat for lunch today. I'd like to order too."The downside of piping up like this is it may cause some eye rolling to try to further discourage her. But between the two options a) of hurting from some eye rolling, and b) hurting from the bully being successful at excluding her, the first one is by far, less traumatic. It also plants in the bully's mind that she will speak up and take matters into her own hands. She has a right to do that as much as anyone else.Just showing others that you believe you deserve good treatment is a way to start to receive it. There are lots of pieces to the puzzle of getting free from bullying. But if you speak up and say something, just show that you notice what's happening, in a pleasant manner, you're one step closer to freedom.Sometimes in a bullying situation, there's no perfect answer. But there are often better ways than others to handle it.Stop Workplace Bullying. Discover How to Speak Up to Save Your Job and Your Dignity. Visit http://www.stop-workplace-bullying.com and sign up for a free Stop the Bullies newsletter. While there, get the ebook everyone's raving about, Bully Blaster: How I Stopped the Bullying, and You Can Too.
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