Unfortunately, bullying is alive and well in the workplace. If you thought you had left bullying in the schoolyard with all of its taunting, name-calling, and threatening behavior, think again. There is an organizational climate that tacitly supports bullies in their efforts to run everyone else's work life. It is because there isn't a clear protocol in place that states that it is unacceptable behavior to bully your coworker. There are tons of organizational policies that detail everything from dress code to discrimination. We know just what to do if an armed intruder bursts into the office, but we don't quite know how to handle that person we work with everyday that nitpicks at their coworker and makes his/her life miserable on a daily basis. We all wonder why no one does anything to stop the bullying behavior. Here is the way bullies are most effective. They can cause you to believe they're right and the other fellow is oh so wrong! The little skinny boy really is weak and shouldn't be picked for the soccer team; the little girl wearing glasses really is a nerdy know-it-all that should be avoided at all costs; that otherwise effective coworker is always making mistakes and is too incompetent to have around.

Just this past week, I witnessed a case of bullying in the workplace. The other day, a bright young professional female coworker in our medical office left in tears with no clear explanation for why she was asked to leave. According to her, all she was told was she was being reassigned to another office as of Monday. The day before, there was a heated confrontation in the back of the office between this coworker and the nurse. This was the last straw for both of them after months of arguments, name-calling, and frustration. As she was placing her personal belongings in a box, this coworker tearfully remarked, "Maybe I am hard to get along with, maybe it's me." No, it wasn't her; it was the mean-spirited nurse who had it in for her for a long time. For the past year, I have been witness to some of the mean remarks, harsh tone, and all around critical attitude of "Nurse Ratched" as she was called behind her back. The nurse would bark orders at the coworker in the earshot of a waiting room full of patients. Obviously, our coworker's style was not to Nurse Ratched's liking, but so what! The woman had a supervisor to whom she reported; the nurse was not that person. Instead of trying to help the coworker to correct what was seen as ever-present errors, the nurse would sneak around corners documenting the "wrongs" and reporting them to the manager. It would have helped if our department manager would have been more effectual in shutting down the tattle-tale's bullying behavior, but she didn't and a good worker and, more importantly, a decent person had to leave a job she liked very much.

The day after my co-worker left the department, the bullying nurse never even mentioned her name, as though she were dead, not just working in another office two floors above ours. It's a shame! We all know that no one is perfect and mistakes happen, but this coworker had a wonderful rapport with the patients who were left to wonder what happen to the nice smiling face they saw the day before. And we who are still working in this disjointed office are left feeling insecure, lost, and are now short-handed because the "powers that be" claim they can't afford to replace her position. We will never really find out the official reason why our coworker had to leave that day. All we're left with is speculation and innuendo, and a nurse who now needs a new victim.

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