WORKPLACE BULLYING.
And yes, it can happen even at this stage in our careers!
Hello lovely ones,
I this week’s edition finds you well and facing the world okay? I ask this because this week I’m talking about something that I know can and does affect how you face and feel in the world. And one I know only too well - having experienced it a couple of times over my working life.
And it’s a subject that is close to the bone for many women in midlife. It’s about something we don’t often talk about — but really should.
Workplace bullying.
And yes, research and my own personal experience proves that it still does exist at this time of our lives. You’d think that by this point in our careers, after all the years of hard work, experience and proving ourselves, bullying would be a thing of the past. But I’ve heard from so many women — particularly those in senior or long-standing positions — who are still on the receiving end of it. Sometimes it’s subtle; sometimes it’s blatant. Either way, it’s destructive.
Maybe you’ve experienced it yourself — a colleague who constantly undermines you, a manager who freezes you out of decisions, or a so-called leader who criticises publicly but praises privately (if at all). And the worst of all, in my experience, being micro managed to the degree where you’re afraid to make a decision in your work for fear of making the wrong one.
And please don’t tell me I’m not the only one who has been so fraught and undermined in their work that it heavily impacts the time where we’re not at work - evenings and weekends etc. I’m talking being unable to relax fully for going over and over what you did at work that day and then not sleeping because of what you’re going to face when you next go into work.
Whatever form it takes, the toll can be heavy — mentally, emotionally and even physically.