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The PlotCareer

They are bullying me at work and doing it politely

Dear Delyara, That is what makes it so difficult to prove. Nobody shouts at me in front of everyone. Nobody uses obvious insults. Nobody sends a message I can print and show and say, look, here, this is abuse. Instead, it is constant little humiliations. They leave me out of meetings and then ask why I didn’t know the update. They talk over me and then later repeat my own point like they just thought of it themselves. They copy senior people into emails about small mistakes, but when someone else makes the same mistake, it stays private. They smile while they do it. That is the worst part. By the end of the week, I feel like I am going into work already bent. I have started editing myself before I speak. I check my emails three times before sending them. I rehearse ordinary conversations in my car before I walk in. I am not sleeping properly because I am already dreading the next day before the current one has finished. People say, “If it’s bad, report it.” But report what exactly? Tone? Atmosphere? The fact that I leave work feeling smaller every day? I am starting to think they want me to quit so they don’t have to be the ones to push me out properly.

ANONYMOUS