Bully victim shares her story, hopes it will inspire others to speak up

by Sep 28, 2015

For victims of workplace bullying, talking about their experience can be very difficult and challenging.  Bully victims are afraid that sharing their story will affect their reputations, while others still feel humiliation over becoming a target of a bully.

Unfortunately bullying is becoming prevalent in workplaces.  Data from the Workplace Bullying Institute indicated that 27 percent of Americans were bullied in the workplace.  This accounts for 37 million employees, wherein 60 percent of the time, the target of workplace bullies were female workers.

Despite these numbers, some companies have yet to address the issue of workplace bullying. Research showed that less than 20 percent of organizations are committed to stop the bullying or abusive conduct at work. Apart from this, laws covering bullying and discrimination are only deemed illegal if the victim can show that the abuse covered factors such as gender, age, race, religion, national origin and physical disability.

This is the reason why Marisa Wong, a bully victim, decided to share her story.  She gained the courage to speak up about her experience given the results of Ellen Pao’s discrimination case with Kleiner Perkins.  Wong even admitted that until now, she still feels shame, weakness and defeat over what happened.  This was what pushed her to tell her story so that more people will know how detrimental bullying can be.

To read Marissa Wong’s story, click here.

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About Catherine Mattice

Catherine Mattice, MA, SPHR, SHRM-SCP is President of consulting and training firm, Civility Partners, and has been successfully providing programs in workplace bullying and building positive workplaces since 2007. Her clients include Fortune 500’s, the military, several universities and hospitals, government agencies, small businesses and nonprofits. She has published in a variety of trade magazines and has appeared several times on NPR, FOX, NBC, and ABC as an expert, as well as in USA Today, Inc Magazine, Huffington Post, Entrepreneur Magazine, and more. Catherine is Past-President of the Association for Talent Development (ATD), San Diego Chapter and teaches at National University. In his book foreword, Ken Blanchard called her book, BACK OFF! Your Kick-Ass Guide to Ending Bullying at Work, “the most comprehensive and valuable handbook on the topic.” She recently released a second book entitled, SEEKING CIVILITY: How Leaders, Managers and HR Can Create a Workplace Free of Bullying.

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