Workplace bullying is a form of communicative aggression that occurs between coworkers as one employee (the bully) attempts to degrade, intimidate, or humiliate another employee (the target), and research shows that one in three adults has experienced workplace bullying. Lauren Petrecca, Bullying by the Boss Is Common but Hard to Fix, USA Today, December 27, 2010, accessed September 13, 2011, http://www.usatoday.com/money/workplace/2010-12-28-bullyboss28_CV_N.htm.

In fact, there is an organization called Civility Partners, LLC devoted to ending workplace bullyingyou can visit their website at http://www.noworkplacebullies.com/home. This type of behavior has psychological and emotional consequences, but it also has the potential to damage a companys reputation and finances. While there are often mechanisms in place to help an employee deal with harassmentreporting to Human Resources for examplethe situation may be trickier if the bully is your boss. In this case, many employees may be afraid to complain for fear of retaliation like getting fired, and transferring to another part of the company or getting another job altogether is a less viable option in a struggling economy. Apply the communication concepts youve learned so far to address the following questions.

How can you distinguish between a boss who is demanding or a perfectionist and a boss who is a bully?
If you were being bullied by someone at work, what would you do?