Impatient, as always, to find a publisher for my workplace bullying book, I’ve been thinking about the market. At first, I kind of accepted the market was niche, and therefore placing my book would take time. But then I started to wonder. How many people are actually suffering enough to go in search of literary assistance?
Just thinking about the people in my circle, my best friend’s brother was bullied out of his job and is still struggling to get back on his feet. OLLIE’S ex secretary, as we know, is getting counselling and trying to gear up for a return to employment. They’ve both been hit hard.
Considering my wider circle of friends, there are a number of examples of moves made due to workplace bullying. If you think about employment experiences of your own family and friends, a job change or transfer because of a boss from hell is not unexpected.
For such a common occurrence, it’s strange that it’s so rarely discussed in a solution seeking way. Now and again, nightmare bosses are joked about – but that’s about it.
Let’s face it. Workplace bullying is an employment taboo.
Few of us are happy to admit that a boss hated us enough to force us to walk out. We worry people will think we’re at fault, either incompetent at our job or annoying to work with. We’d hate to give our new colleagues the idea that, “Hey, what if she’s super-sensitive to constructive criticism? What if I say the wrong thing and she accuses me of bullying?” We worry our new workmates will be walking on eggshells, thinking we’re litigious or oversensitive, prone to exaggerating or combative, paranoid or vindictive.
And that’s the magic of books. As Stephen King writes in On Writing:-
“[Writing is] telepathy of course...I didn’t tell you. You didn’t ask me. I never opened my mouth and you never opened yours. We’re not even in the same year together, let alone the same room...except we are together. We’re close.”
And so we are.
Lots of us.
Best wishes
BBTB x
2 comments:
Push your book or try publishing it on the internet, this would be courage and initiative.
This epedemic is something people are afraid to talk about. Which is probably 7 out of 10 people.
Example. horse racing, the rider whips the horse to run faster but the horse knows the trainer will feed & provide a roof over his head, the horse can not run into the bush because the horse needs the owners support. ( in the workplace people need the money to earn a reasonable living - re horse example)
I know plenty of people who get bullied and also plenty who have left work because of their bullyboss.
I get gang bullied without fail constantly, which is probably the hardest thing I experiance in life, and no one says not one thing at all & you know what they don't even care.
Nightmare bosses are joked about, they have a group of close knit people and this fuels their ego which reviels the animal with in them which show their true colours.
thank you for the post
Thank you for your comments Mr Fan.
I'm going to gear up to push the book again in the next couple of weeks. I'm convinced there's a market for it. I'm realistic about these things, but I'm convinced that people find it as difficult a subject to talk about as domestic violence.
There's only one way to rally against that - and it's to not shut up about it :-)
I appreciate what you say about the collective not caring. It rubs salt in the wound. So painful.
Take care
BBTB x
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