Re Gaby Hinsliff on bullying in the workplace (From demands about avocado rotation to staff in tears, working for the Tories can be perilous, 6 February), I was effectively forced out of my position as a government legal adviser by a manager who belittled me in front of other (more senior) colleagues in meetings and generally created an atmosphere of intimidation and dread.
When I summoned the courage to notify his manager (the head of the department), I was brushed off as not being “resilient” enough and was told it was just my manager’s gruff manner, despite others having been subjected to similar treatment in the past. I finally left the office one day, crying uncontrollably after another incident of humiliation, and never returned.
Colleagues were even prevented from sending me a leaving card and I was treated like a pariah, despite having been a popular and high-performing member of the team with a promising future.
This was many years ago. I can only hope that things are changing, both within the civil service and more widely. But it seems to me that an inability to tolerate bullying and harassment in the workplace is still somehow considered a personal failing and that we have yet to shine a light on this widespread and corrosive behaviour in the same way the #MeToo movement did for sexual harassment.
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