Bullying at work is a grown-up version of schoolyard bullying, and far too often it is ignored until the bully’s behavior crosses the line into violent behavior.  Bullies are coworkers who use ridicule, make overt or covert threats, or exert authority that the organization has not given them. At the Yale U. Lab Raymond Clark allegedly tried to give orders to others regarding footwear (not a responsibility delegated to him) and cleaning cages (his job, which he had no authority to assign to others). 

Bullies are insecure individuals who have unresolved personal problems of one kind or another. They intimidate others as a means of getting their way or to compensate for their feeling of low self-esteem. They do not feel capable of winning others over to their side by stating their positions or by competing intellectually.  In other words, they pick on and threaten others to “act out” their own feelings of worthlessness.  For that reason, they often attack the most vulnerable—the coworker who is least likely to fight back—to demonstrate their power and their worth.

Bullies also attack the most competent—the ones against whom they fear they cannot compete successfully on the basis of workplace performance. Their objective may be to get the over-achiever to slow down or quit so that he or she is no longer a threat.  Or bullying may simply be the way that individual has learned to handle his or her jealousy of another’s competence or popularity.  In this case, the negative behavior probably is the bully’s way of showing that, while an individual may be successful or popular, he or she is less powerful and more vulnerable than the bully is.

Finally, there are individuals who are so mentally unfit that they simply enjoy humiliating, embarrassing, or degrading their coworkers. Even at the risk of alienating other coworkers, they savor the moments of control over the targeted person’s sense of well-being.

Whatever the reasons or motivations, bullying behavior does not just cease if ignored.  It can advance to more serious acts, including murder.

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