by Amanda Ines

Created on: November 25, 2010   Last Updated: March 20, 2011

How much bullying will someone endure in order to hang onto their job? Well at this present moment of time I would imagine that one would go to any lengths and that one would put up with more insults, abuse or whatever else just so long as one was able to hang onto one's precious job, because whether the job was fulfilling, satisfying, rewarding or even none of these adjectives it is still a job and jobs nowadays are like found diamonds on a pavement or a winning lottery ticket! 

I myself was in exactly this position about a year ago. I am a woman of 58 years old, albeit in quite good condition but that doesn't take away what it says on my birth certificate and most companies nowadays are not even interested in hiring anyone over the age of 40 and sometimes even blatantly express these views within their adverts saying 'refrain from applying for the position if over 40'! This makes me absolutely livid because when all the governments in the world are changing the laws and rules so that people have to continue working until they are 67 years old, well then how are they expected to find work when all the employers only want to take on those who are under the age of 40! 

Well with all these thoughts well imprinted in my mind I found myself having to endure abusive behaviour, or rather bullying, from another employee who was 20 years my junior or to put it in another way I could have been her mother! I was the secretary and she was the sales director and when the chief bosses were out of the office she really dug into me or simpler said 'when the cats were away the mice got to play!'. But to explain it all in better terms it wasn't play but malicious treatment. 

This sales director would try and put me down at every opportunity, ridicule my age and lack of energy and make me look a fool. She would also use me as a punching glove for her hormonal irregularities and these monthly attacks were so clear to see for what they were! But as always none of these abuses would ever be carried out when anybody else from the staff were about. They were done in secret and I had to continue to endure them if I wanted to hang onto my job. 

I remember one particular day when I was feeling absolutely lousy with the flu, a fever, splitting headache, aching bones, running nose and feeling that I had in fact made a mistake in coming to work to start with as the best place for me that day was quite obviously my bed! But with the ever present threat of losing one's

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