The Gordon Brown bullying saga

[vickyducky]

Any kind of bullying is a dreadful thing. I escaped it at school, thankfully, but a boss of mine, who has now been promoted on away from me, didn't really ever pick on me, but the fear she engendered by the way she treated some of my colleagues, the whole 'it could be you' effect was really awful. What I remember as being the worst was the unpredictability. With most people in authority, I have found, you learn the rules, whatever they are, and you abide by them, however ridiculous, keep your head down, do your homework, or whatever, and they leave you in peace. This woman had no rules. What was right on Tuesday was an excuse to scream at you on Friday. And it was who you were, not what you did or didn't do. If one of her favourites ballsed things up then it was somehow somebody else's fault. Nightmare.

So I have seen, and to an extent, vicariously experienced, work-place bullying, and I would never try to down play it or pretend it isn't awful, but what has bothered me most about this whole news story is the fact that the confidentiality of those people who phoned that anti-bullying help line has been breached by that dreadful woman, as far as I can see for political point scoring, although she has denied this. It's all very well saying she hasn't named the callers or given details of their concerns but she has given away that they called at all. With my former boss that would be more than enough excuse to pick on the people she would assume it must have been. How many people are in that office? They're all now under suspicion of having been the ones. The atmosphere must be appalling.