Bullying

What is bullying in the workplace? The trades union Unite has the following list of indicators:

• Bullies may use terror tactics, open aggression, threats, shouting, abuse, and obscenities towards their target
• Bullies may subject their target to constant humiliation or ridicule, belittling their efforts, often in front of others
• Bullies may subject their target to excessive supervision, monitoring everything they do and being excessively critical about minor things
• Bullies may take the credit for other people's work but never take the blame when things go wrong
• Bullies may constantly override the person's authority
• Bullies may remove whole areas of work responsibility from the person, reducing their job to routine tasks that are well below their skills and capabilities
• Bullies may set the person what they know to be impossible objectives, or constantly change the work remit without telling the person, and then criticise or reprimand the person for not meeting their demands
• Bullies may ostracise and marginalise their target, dealing with the person only through a third party, excluding the person from discussions, decisions etc
• Bullies may spread malicious rumours about the individual
• Bullies may refuse reasonable requests for leave, training etc, or block a person's promotion.

Sounds familiar, doesn't it?