Prologue of my book and chapter 1

“I would rather be a little nobody, then to be a evil somebody.”
― Abraham Lincoln

Prologue:


Over 7 1/2 years ago, I walked into a new place of employment. Immediately I could tell the branch manager named Alan hated me. For the next 5 1/2 years this man made my professional life hell. I tried to be a professional and let many incidents slide but after a while it became almost unbearable. There were many days that I would go home in tears and on Sunday nights; I would dread Monday like a child would dread going back to school. It took some years for me to realize that this wasn’t the “norm” and most people didn’t feel constantly attacked by their coworker. After I left HT(company), I thought of a nifty title of a book. "Everybody has an Alan". This would be a handbook to let others know how to deal with that bitch of a boss, cranky coworker, or the know it all Nicki’s. I wrote many psych papers on Alan's behavior and decided for my capstone project that I would create the actual book. Workplace bullying is a serious issue but not acknowledged by many corporations in the United States. As adults we are expected to meet those that we don’t jive with and we know that not everyone is always going to like us but when do we accept that we are being bullied instead of it being just a simple “clash of personalities”?
Chapter 1: What bullying means.
The definition of work place bullying is “include, but is not limited to, spreading malicious rumors, gossip, or innuendo that is not true; excluding or isolating someone socially; undermining or deliberately impeding a person’s work; physically abusing or threatening abuse; removing areas of responsibilities without cause; constantly changing work guidelines or establishing impossible deadlines that will set up the individual to fail; under work – creating a feeling of uselessness, belittling a person’s opinions, blocking applications for training, leave or promotion, and various others(Chekwa & Thomas,2013). To break this down for you what this means is if a person constantly belittles you in front of coworkers, says negative things about you or your appearance, then chances are you are being bullied. If this continues over an extensive period of time then you are being bullied. I know when I started working for HT, Alan would constantly put down any idea I had but his ideas were always better. Before I left HT, I was at the top of my game. I had several record months and a coworker overheard Alan telling one of his followers that “30 O2’s a month is a fluke” and he doesn’t care who it is. The last office meeting that I attended instead of congratulating me on a job well done; he congratulated the office for their timeliness on getting the referrals in and done. He made sure he never complimented or congratulated me on a job well done. My bullying didn’t just come from Alan it came from those that were working for him. He would constantly demean me and try to discredit me. He would devalue my position at the company and his attitude spread like wildfire. Pretty soon I was public enemy number 1. I have several situations that constantly continued to build throughout the years and it would come to a boiling point several times.