Is There a Bully at Your Workplace?

Yep. It was a long time ago and on reflection it is not something to savour. The individual was eventually prised out of the organisation.

Not wher I am now...but there was in the past.

Luckily he wasn't all that bright (compared to the rest of us) because we were able to make himself get into a serious mess that made him look like a total tool in front of the boss when he did it.

Unfortunately for me my first boss was the bully but fortunately for me he was like your bully and too stupid to know when he was getting set up to make himself look bad!

He did that part incredibly well however the rest of his job was based on stealling ideas, good or bad, and trying to pass off others work for his own, again for good or bad.

(I gave him loads of bad ideas and work to take credit for.)

I think we may have both worked for that guy at some point.....

I worked for someone that fit that description....only I didn't consider this one much of a bully....arrogant, self important, pomopus.....pushy....(this got him in big trouble before it was over) but he wasn't competent enough to even be called a bully. This guy thought he could fool around with the wife of another guy that worked for him and not only would that guy not find out...but his wife wouldn't find out either.....It didn't take long before the entire company found out and his house of cards started to fall.....he ended up demoted not long after I gave him the one finger salute and left for a better job.

Now that you mention it the arrogant, self important, pompous and pushy description fits him well.

The fun part was that he was about half as smart as he thought he was and I was about 4 times smarter than he thought I was!

Trying to steal and then sell ideas you cant fit in your own head does not work well at the corporate level meetings.

He was how I learned that by watching one extraordinary dumb ass in action you can learn far more than if you had watched the wisest person on earth!

A wise man will teach you what you need to know to solve a problem. Where a right and proper dumb ass will teach you about everything else that could possibly go wrong with the problem!

We used to play games with brown nosing co-workers that took our ideas to tell the boss what he thought up...

We tricked him in being overconfident on one bunch of equipment that a single mistake would wreck ALL of the programming in...knowing he would go to the boss after out shift ended and we were the only two who know how to fix the mess.....sure enough Mr. Reliable went, showed the boss punched buttons, and zeroed out the programming on an entire rack of linked equipment.

Of course he then blamed it on us...and the half-wit boss chewed us out the next day. We told the boss if that dumbass didn't have the sense to keep his fingers off stuff he didn't understand...how was it OUR fault....since we wasn't even there.

It wasn't the first time.....wasn't the last.....but I had a hand in his final act.....I got him fired by getting his security clearance revoked by the government permanently.

The IRS.

The fact is "bullies are created by bad bosses to use as a cover for underhand activities,to give trouble to honest workers and make them leave etc"

I once worked under a a guy who had the prettiest smile that you've ever seen. In his interview he told stories about how he had achieved many great accomplishments by being tough enough to take charge of the situation and put others in their place. This smooth talk and projection of confidence got him hired on as engineering manager though only in his mid-thirties.

Once hired he went about writing up people who didn't fit his (or his boss's) definition of "team player" over minor infractions. Eventually, to prove that he could back his words up with actions, he fired a young engineer who had relocated from 400 miles away because he "failed to meet expectations." A few months later, he fired an electrical engineer with 25 years of experience after he openly disagreed with him over some minor project details.

"Super-manager" took charge of every capitol engineering project in the plant. He dealt with contractors personally in his office and worked out contract details without interference from other engineers. After hands were shaken and papers were signed he'd present the contract terms to the engineering group after it was too late for input to do any good.

Within a year the guy had screwed up every capitol project we were working on. The loss of work forced the layoff of over half of the hourly staff. Finally, the guy was walked out to his vehicle by the plant manager who hired him on as his "bull dog."

I had one boss who was a real bully and an ass.
I was trying to suggest that we went to the pub (where he wouldn't be the boss) and discuss the problem in hand over a beer.
He misunderstood and thought I was inviting him out to sort it with our fists.
He backed down sooooo quick it was hilarious, the irony is that it's just not what I do, (I've only ever once punched anyone when I was a kid and they hit me first!)
Del
_{(or as the Irishman says. "I'm a peace loving man, and I'll tump anyone who says different". )}