Work Shouldn't Hurt - Workplace Bullying Does!

"It is Sunday evening and you wonder where the weekend went. The thought of going to work is making you feel sick to your stomach. You are calling in sick more often and dreading to go into work on Monday morning. For me, I would wake up in the morning and vomit or have hard dry heaves that left my stomach feeling turned inside out. One morning I experienced chest pains severe enough that I went to the emergency room. Though medical tests revealed that I wasn't having a heart attack, the ER doctor advised me to see a cardiologist.

Is your blood pressure too high? Are you experiencing headaches, stomach aches and/or bouts of diarrhea? Grinding your teeth at night? Or maybe you just can't sleep as you lay awake replaying an incident at work over and over in your mind? Do you feel exhausted and depressed from the oppressive atmosphere at work and the way you are being treated? You may be experiencing workplace bullying, a highly toxic experience that can tear your entire life apart.

At work you may notice your manager or even co-workers may be treating you differently than other workers. Someone may be watching when you arrive at work, how long you take breaks and what time you leave work. You may find you are given more and more work to do and what seems like impossible deadlines. Or you may find that the work projects that normally came your way are being passed on to someone else. You notice your co-workers going to meetings that you aren't told about. When you ask for the same training opportunities offered to others in the office, you are denied; the information necessary to do your job is withheld.

You may discover that someone else is taking credit for the work you did. No matter how hard you work, and you know you are doing the best job possible, you are told, either directly or indirectly, that it is not good enough...implying YOU are not good enough! You may find you are being reprimanded for incidental things that your coworkers do every day. You are afraid to speak up and say anything in fear you may be written up for insubordination or you may be accused of not being a team player.

Your supervisor may be in your face, yelling at your while others at work are being told not to talk to you. There are rules that apply to you but not to others in your office. You find that everything you do or say is being scrutinized. You feel isolated and alone as your career takes a dive. When you complain to management the situation worsens. You ask for a transfer and the transfer is denied. WORK SHOULDN'T HURT!"

California Healthy Workplace Advocates would like to thank the member who wrote this biography of experiences. If any of this is happening to you, please join our grass roots movement to pass a law to correct and prevent workplace bullying! Thankyou