How to cope with an office bully

You might think that bullying is something that only schoolchildren need to worry about, but some adults are bullied at work.

"Workplace bullying is the consistent and repeated mistreatment of one employee by another, and international estimates suggest that at least one in six people will at some stage fall victim to an office bully," says Dr Gillian Mooney, teaching and learning manager at The Independent Institute of Education.

Bullying obviously takes a toll on the victim, but companies can also feel the pain as teams, departments and even the entire company can feel its effects. This can lead to poor productivity and the victims looking for work elsewhere.

"Workplace bullying affects the target mentally and physically, and will almost certainly impact on motivation and productivity."

Mooney has the following advice:

If you think you may be the victim of bullying, ask a trusted co-worker for their opinion, which will give you a more neutral view of what is happening;

Make sure you understand what you are dealing with. Constructive criticism is positive, non-threatening and usually includes helpful advice on how to improve, but bullying is destructive and aimed at undermining and humiliating the victim;

Workplace bullies typically make unreasonable demands and are verbally abusive. They also use intimidation, degradation, isolation and humiliation to get their way;

Bullies are often guilty of "gaslighting" - making you start to doubt yourself - so in a journal, note each incident, along with the date and context, so you will have all the details to make a clear case if you have to escalate the issue. -