Fight or Flight

Have you ever been bullied at work? Bullied at work? Yes, bullied at work. I mean your superior or co- workers ( usually a brown noser and a part time snitch ) acting like your superior trying to flex their muscles to show their power over you in your place of work.

Bullying at work is a comprehensive term used by human resource experts varying from humiliation, yelling, threats and intimidation, ridicule, insult,demeaning remarks, rude interactions, fault finding aggressive behaviour, all of which are present consistently displayed by your abusive superior at work.

We refer to the terms as maltreatment and bullying or sometimes called mobbing. In effect, boorish behaviour mentioned here results to psychological stress, resignation, truancy, lack of motivation, poor performance among poor target victims.

Usually we hear stories of victims narrating their harrowing abusive work experiences coming from immediate superiors or department heads which is quite easier I suppose to deal with because an employee´s immediate response is to report the abusive and unacceptable behavior to the superior of the abusive boss. However, what happens if the abuse comes from the CEO or the owner of the company you are working in?

I know a friend of mine who used to work in a well established business company who happened to be a receipient of the consistent verbal abuse that was regularly directed to her and to co-employees of the company. The director being the owner of the company and a decision maker uses that leverage and power to throw his weight around the office and humiliates his hard working employees over trivial issues. He does nit picking as a hobby. Yelling at them becomes his morning vocalization which leaves his staff feeling very nervous like they are walking on eggshells. Oh and by the way, did I mention that he is also a slave driver? Once my friend was running a fever with severe cough and a hoarse voice which she thought in the beginning was a throat infection. She was not permitted to be absent from work on that day which got the poor girl hospitalized for 10 days, doctors diagnosis: pneumonia. While at the hospital, there was no call from her boss out of concern for her situation. She went back to work ignored that delayed of work was solely caused by her absence. To make matter worse, she faced a huge pay cut because of the days she did not work.

My distraught friend appalled and frustrated by how her boss was treating her ( note that this treatment is not only happening to her but other employees as well.) desperately searched for a book hoping to provide herself with at least a soft comfort to her battered spirit and troubled mind. Thankfully, she found " THE NO ASSHOLE RULE, Building a Civilised Workplace and Surviving One That Isn´t." by Robert Sutton.

The book totally made her awestruck as it discusses everything that she had been experiencing and witnessing at work like an oasis on a dry dessert, she said.

Though the book has an obscene title as you can see. Well don´t judge the book by its title. There is more to the book than meets the reader´s eye. Mr.Sutton, the author of the book describes the mean spirited superiors at work as "assholes" does what I exactly described above. If you want to know more about the work place bullying or abuse you could go and check out the site: www.bobsutton.net. ( Hello… Mr. Sutton if you are reading this right now, give me at least some credits here for promoting your book and your site. )

I am sure that this case is just the tip of the iceberg compared to your own or your friend´s experiences at work. Who knows, yours could be worse than my friend´s or maybe yours is similar experience to Andrea, the lead character in The Devil Wears Prada , having your own miniature Miranda Priestly the cold hearted abusive boss in the story ( at least she gets the privelege to wear branded clothes in her line of work.)

This situation leaves us in a dilemma of what should we do as victims of psychological or verbal abuse at work? Should we fight? or flight? Fighting against it means putting yourself into a more stressful situation by engaging more likely in an altercation with your abuser, or fleeing from the work scene for good, resigning and looking for another job ( which unfortunately for those residing in a country with low employment rate, this is a big risk.)

However, making a wise decision to change a job is not as easy as changing clothes isn´t it? A theory states that animals react to a stressful situation by either fighting back or fleeing. I know for a fact that a person will always reach his saturation point and will sooner or later stand up on his feet and say: I had enough!

But if you are in this kind of predicament at work and you think that can not make up your mind whether you will engage in a fight or flight resolve, remember that it´s either your boss is too smart to victimize you and continue to slap you on one cheek or you are such a big fool to stay and offer the other cheek.