Cossomby, I'm not challenging your experiences at all, I'm saying that if that occurred aand the boss did nothing about it, then that is a bad boss and you all had all the more reason to move on.

Can I ask what you expected to happen in response to your problem?

Lexi, see above.

I'm also amused by this:
"I certainly don't agree"
"The fact remains, it is wrong"
"You will not be able to convince me"

etc, etc etc, follwed by:
"If you sound too dogmatic, and you don't listen to the other person's opinion you will be deemed pig-headed and will subsequently be ignored."

Gold!

Dear Antiseptic,

Now you're simply stirring and baiting.

You need to re-read your own posts and the things
you've stated. Perhaps then you may begin to comprehend
how you are being perceived in this discussion.

You've stated things like the foloowing:

1) We are creating a culture in which claiming victimisation is
the first step for anybody wanting to cause trouble for someone
else.

2) How did a nation...end up with such a bunch of pansies?

You refer to -

3) Frivolous complaints.

4) People tell lies for advantage.

5) The problem is insignificant.

6) Zero tolerance - Nannyism.

7) Increae in the number of busybodies who earn a crust
wagging their fingers.

You state that victims of bullying are -

8) Quite simply not in accordance with Australian values
and not conducive to the creation of a society of mutual
respect (sic) between its members.

9) You Stated to Cossomby - "the fact that your co-workers
took the other party's side would tend to indicate you
weren't popular among the group, while your "bully"
was..." You have no way of knowing this.
Yet - it never occurred to you that perhaps the
co-workers were intimidated by the bully or that the bully
was the boss.

You claim that -

10) The problem didn't really exist at all - just like
99.9% of complaints about bullying.

11) If a person is not happy they have the right to leave.
That's your answer to the problem.

Then you go and put-down comments -

12) Telling Ammonite to go to Centerlink to put in a form.
That's un-called for.

And there's more but I shan't continue. To most people- it's simply not debating on a mature, intelligent level. I was merely being
polite by stating that you were being pig-headed - it was in response
to your comments which possibly you're not even aware of how they
come across. Which is sad.

Dear me, Lexi, that hit a nerve, didn't it? I shan't bother responding in detail to that...erm...

You haven't at any stage tried to refute my reasoned statement of the real prevalence of bullying in Victorian workplaces. Neither has Suze, neither has Ammonite and neither has Cossomby, who has at least engaged on something other than the level of a spoilt child.

I'll repeat the point: 6000 claims made - about 10% worth passing to the abuse response unit - of those about 10% worth investigating further - of those, some unknown portion, but presumably less than 100%, were shown to involve actual bullying.

Sadly you, Suze and Ammonite give us a good picture of why there were so many made and so few that were real.

Dear Antiseptic.

No that did not hit any sort of nerve with me. I was merely responding to your earlier post in an attempt to hold up a mirror to you of your pig-headed behaviour. As for your continued claims of
bullying reports not being "real," I suggest that you do a bit more
research and Google the subject further. You will find that the Australian Institute of Criminology has statistics and facts on covert and cyber bullying. There's further links on school bullying along with bullying statistics - and much, much more - all indicating just how serious the problem is in this country. The following website may also help to clarify things for you:

http://www.know-bull.com/factsnstats.html

Lexi, if you'd bothered to get down off your high chair and read that link you quoted, you'll find it supports my contention that the problem is self-limiting. If businesses with bullying bosses are really losing $6billion a year, how long do you reckon they'll stay open? But I don't actually believe the link since it's to a advocacy website

The Victorian figures, which are not "estimations" show that genuine bullying is rare, but problems with personnel are not. Most of the complaints received about bullying were to do with other issues. 99.9% of the claims, in fact. If bullying is genuinely so common, then it is being dealt with effectively internally, because few of the people complaining to Worksafe have anything genuine to complain about.

As the original post noted: ""WorkSafe's executive director of health and safety, Ian Forsyth, believes the huge surge in complaints can largely be attributed to greater awareness about bullying""

The "report" cited on that page you linked to says on it's title page

"Prepared 30th May 2010 by Know Bull! (Australia) To support ‘Workplace Bullying Awareness Month’
© 2010"

Great reference... Did you skip the lessons on research when you were learning to stack books?

BTW Lexi, the report was exceptionally authoritative for one of these advocacy things, since it was based on a survey of a whole 54 respondents. It also actually acknowledges "that the survey was conducted from among the visitors to the Know Bull! website and not a scientific survey administered by a professional survey company."

Yes, I was shocked too when I saw such candour, but I'm sure the staff member responsible has experienced some "bullying" and won't let it happen again...