Helen Major has dispiriting news for anyone trying to curb a bully

Who do you turn to for help if your reputation and health are being destroyed by a workplace bully? Since research indicates that most bullies target good employees, you would think that the obvious answer would be that they should turn to HR or their union. The problem is that ten years of international research on workplace bullying indicates that that may be the wrong thing to do.

Web sites dedicated to bully busting, like the site for the Workplace Bullying Institute in Bellingham Washington, bluntly tell targets NOT to trust HR or expect the union to help them unless the target can make a business case for HR or the union’s “own self-interests.”

Curious as to why HR and unions were perceived so negatively, I decided to do some research on my own. I interviewed four HR and four union subjects and they generously shared their personal encounters with work place bullying with me. Read the full story