If you were targeted for workplace bullying, you were not targeted because of any deficiency on your part. To the contrary you were targeted because you have something that the bully does not have and the bully may resent your ability to influence your colleagues, your technical skills and experience, your leadership and the fact that colleagues look up to you for guidance. The bully may come to see you as a threat and this is not a perception backed by objective evidence, to the contrary it is an irrational perception that the bully has in his/her head. Unlike playground bullying , adults in the workplace are not targeted because they are weak- but rather because you are good which gets to be construed as a threat. To put you in your place the bully targets you using whatever tool s/he finds in her/his arsenal which may include more subtle forms of bullying such as withholding authorisation of legitimate business transactions for no legitimate reasons to create an impression of ineptness on your part, withholding benefits that are due to you, hitting you with status slaps, blowing out of proportion errors that you made, threatening to institute baseless investigations and disciplinary proceedings against you, etc. All of this is done to show you who is charge and to put you in your place. Bullying can also be carried out by colleagues at the same level as you- (Remember that colleague who is ready to put across a view contrary to yours- no matter how illogical)? The bully may also target you because you remind him/ her someone s/he hates and makes you the proxy for that person. If you have been targeted for bullying – it is not your fault- that is the case regardless of how many attempts the bully has embarked on to gaslight you, single you out for differential detrimental treatment or denied you the opportunity to use privileges you are entitled to.
