Where Does Bullying Take Place?

Stop Bullying Before Someone gets Seriously Hurt

What is bullying?- According to NSW  it is when behaviour is hurtful and happens more than once; that behaviour is directed at a certain person or group of people and it embarrasses, threatens or intimidates the person(s) being bullied.

It’s amazing but I have found that some people actually only view bullying as a childhood experience, not something that can happen to an adult, even when it is happening to them. Bullying can be found in many ways, here are a few, this is an overview I plan to look at all of them in more detail in later posts:

Schools – this is something that has had a lot of media attention all over the world the past few years. Children being bullied because they are different,  that can be anything from the eye colour to ethnicity.

Workplace – bullying goes on far more than people realise, take a look at these pictures and see if you can identify any that you may have seen but not realised what was happening.

Cyberbullying – this is on the increase, we have all read about the Facebook victims those who have attempted or even committed suicide. Cyber bullying can take place over any social media, emails, phone Apps, Twitter, chat rooms. Hard to control and difficult to identify although most responsible companies are attempting to identify bullies but a lot depends on the victim pointing them out, something that is hard for many of those bullied to do.

This is just the tip of the iceberg, if you think you are being bullied please identify it to a senior manager or talk to your  HR department.

So What is a Bully?

 

Bullies can be anywhere and anyone.

We all have ideas of what a bully looks like;

• The big mean boy, maybe physically large and maybe overweight.
• The pretty girl who controls the class/workplace etc
• A certain boss who wants everyone afraid of him.

I am sure you could add more to the list but these are not the complete picture because anyone can be a bully in any walk of life. You could be one, I could.  You possible do not think you could ever bully anyone but when does assertion become bullying, when does confidence start to blind you to how others react to you?  If you are confident and assertive it might surprise you to know that in some areas of your life you could be thought to be a bully. Shocking isn’t it, the last person you would expect to be a bully often can be. Don’t misunderstand me I am not saying we should not be confident or assertive but we should be aware of the effect we could have. There is much more to a bully’s profile and we will look at those in further posts. I just want to challenge your perception of what a bully is.

My great grandma was a bully, she was a tiny tiny woman who lived till she was 92, I never heard her raise her voice but if she wanted something it was done or given. I once watched her insist on the a rugby match being turned over. My dad, grandad and brother had been looking forward to it for days – some final. My Great gran knew that but wanted to show she was in control and insisted that it was making her ill. Now she could have gone to another room but no they had to turn it off. Her voice never raised in a shout but her demands were law. It was the small smile she wore all afternoon that  shocked me and I still am by what that little woman could do. Call her strong willed, assertive even but to be honest she was a bully; her pleasure was in disrupting my grandads life (son-in-law) and she did not mind that others were affected as well.

As you can imagine I am not a believer in the definition that a bully only uses strength and intimidation to get what they want. I think it is far more complicated that just strength, it is about power and how it’s held and maintained.