Office Bully

The Office Bully

I admit I was proud of myself when I was successful in securing a position in a large organization that had branches here and also overseas. It had been a challenging and fairly nerve-racking interview process. The position was on the front desk, managing a very busy switchboard, organizing travel for the executives and salespeople and attending to the incoming mail. I had always worked in front desk and receptionist positions as this work came naturally to me as I found communicating and relating to other people easy.

I was nervous the day I started, feeling a little uneasy, my nerves were fluttering and I felt a bit queasy. Even though I knew my way around a switchboard, this was exceptionally busy and I had to acquaint myself with the names of all the people in the office and the salespeople who worked in various cities. I also had to become familiar with the customers who called for orders.

The previous receptionist helped me over the bumpy first few days when I was fumbling away trying to remember the different extensions for everyone. The staff in the expansive office were welcoming and understanding that I was a learner.

This was during the 1980s and the situation in workplaces was quite different to these days. There was only one female executive. Most of the women worked either in the sales department or in the office area, churning out mountains of typed documents every day. They never stopped. Their heads were down and their fingers flying across keyboards. At that time most of the typing was on word processors or typewriters.

Once I got familiar with the other staff and got to know them a little by socializing during lunch breaks in the cafeteria or attending after hours drinks, I started to enjoy my position. It was the most demanding and busy job that I had ever worked in but it was a great challenge. I eagerly left my warm bed everyday to go to this job. .

There was only one person who had the ability to cloud my day and that was the female executive, the only woman holding such a position. Let us call her Janice. I heard her speaking to the other females in the office area in a very derogatory manner at times. I noticed that she spoke to them and to me as if we were children in a classroom.

Janice decided that I was in her firing range for put-downs and all kinds of snide comments. Whenever she had an opportunity she would draw attention to anything that she saw as a small mistake by commenting very loudly in the open office so that everyone could hear. Apart from the very busy job I had handling the switchboard, I had to sort all the mail and then deliver it around the office while someone relieved on the switchboard. Due to the constant calls coming through, it was an effort to get the mail sorted. If I delivered it a bit later than she liked, she would loudly complain in her irritating, whinging tones. I found it hard to like her but I was always respectful. She was about fifteen years older than me and I felt that she was resentful of other women who were more youthful than her. The males never received the same treatment from her.

She took every opportunity to criticize me but I did not challenge her. By nature, I was a person who did not like confrontation so I would just ignore her comments and try not to let her make me feel inadequate.

We had work assessments every six months, and I was delighted to receive a great report and a wage increase for my first one, so I felt confident that I was doing a good job in spite of the put-downs from Janice.

Often other employees made comments about this woman and some of them did not respect her very much, they certainly did not like her. I was the one who was on the receiving end of her nastiness most of the time. I felt that she did not regard the receptionist position as very important so decided that she would make me aware of her disdain. I was very proud of my position as I was the first voice that people heard when they called or the first face they saw if they visited.

One day, Janice called me on an inside connection and informed me that she was going into the boardroom and she was not to be interrupted under any circumstances. I told her that I understood and would follow her instructions.

About ten minutes later, I could see her standing in the corridor chatting to someone. While she was doing that, I received a call from the state sales manager who wanted to talk to her. I told him about her instructions but mentioned that Janice was not yet in the boardroom but had been chatting in the corridor for at least ten minutes. David told me not to worry and that he was returning Janice’s call from earlier in the day. He told me to just tell her that he had called.

A short while after, Janice walked past my desk and I took the opportunity to tell her that David had called.

She turned to me and snapped “Why didn’t you come and get me or page me to the phone you stupid, stupid girl!” “ I was just doing what you told me to do,” I responded “If I had not been able to see you from my desk I would not have known that you were in the corridor, I would have thought you were in the boardroom already.”

Janice came right up to the desk, leaned over looking threateningly at me and hissed, “I don’t know why they hired you for this job. You are so incompetent!”

I felt my face flushing, my heart started to pound wildly and I knew that whatever the outcome I was going to retaliate. I was shaking with fury as I left the switchboard ringing and walked out from behind the desk and right up to Janice so that our faces were close. She stepped back a little, not expecting me to come out from behind the desk. “Who the hell do you think you are, speaking to me like that? Do you somehow think that you are a superior being to everyone else? You know what the problem is Janice? I think that underneath you think that you are a bit of an imposter having your position in this company, and to make yourself feel important you have found someone that you think you can belittle every day. It makes you feel like you have authority. I got my job on my merits but from what I have heard and seen for myself I would say you didn’t entirely earn your position because of your skills. Don’t think that I have not heard about your little workplace love affair with a certain senior executive. Perhaps you don’t think people know, but it is common knowledge and you make a laughing stock of yourself with your pumped up image of yourself. Now I want an apology from you and don’t ever speak to me in a disrespectful manner again. Ever!”.

Janice was standing there with her mouth opening and closing like a fish, looking astounded. “Can this really be coming out of her mouth?’ she must have been thinking. I looked straight into her face and asked “Do you understand Janice what I am telling you?”

Janice looked shattered and mumbled a reluctant “Sorry” and walked away looking very deflated. I walked back behind my desk to the switchboard which was lit up like an amusement park. I thought that I would be in trouble for walking away and letting the switchboard ring. One of the male executives was standing there and had overheard the exchange between me and Janice. I thought “Well now I am for it. This may result in losing my job or being reprimanded by the manager if it got back to him” I thought to myself. However, much to my surprise, Mike, who was not the manager but high up in the company, did a slow clap of his hands and said “Well done! So many people have wanted to put her in her place but have not had the courage to say anything. I never thought it would be you who gave her a bit of her own medicine. I am in awe!” I smiled and said “Well I was just at the end of my tether with her so I decided to let her have it both barrels.” Mike laughed and commented that he thought that I did not have a tether. “You are always so easygoing and friendly”, he commented. “It takes a while to make me boil but when I do nothing will hold me back from speaking my mind” “Well you have made my day and I really admire you. I don’t think she is going to upset you again!”

I stayed in that job for another year and then left to travel overseas. Janice certainly changed her attitude towards me and was almost over polite when she asked me to do anything. One day after I had returned home after my travels, I met Janice in a shopping centre. I was surprised that she made a bee-line towards me. . She seemed eager to have a chat with me. She said she had left the company and was currently looking for work. I had already been informed that Janice’s relationship at work finished and she got a sideways promotion which in reality was a demotion which she could not accept so she left the company.

It was strange, but she seemed to have respect for me after our altercation. I realized that she thought I was an easy target but she underestimated me. After that experience, I toughened up and wherever I worked afterward, I always made it clear that bully tactics were not acceptable to me.

I had always thought it was best to ignore nasty people and bullies but I found out in reality that it makes them target you more if you turn the other cheek. A better tactic for me is to confront the situation and make it very clear that their behaviour is unacceptable. It has worked very well for me over the years.