Reports of military sex assault up sharply

May 1, 2014. CNN) — Reports of sex assault in the U.S. military are up by half, another startling annual figure around a problem the Pentagon believes is still under-reported.
But the Defense Department said the sharp year-over-year increase for fiscal 2013 largely reflected steps to encourage more people to come forward if they’ve been assaulted.
And Pentagon leaders acknowledged they’ve still got a long way to go, and have put special emphasis on getting male victims to file claims.
“The best way to combat this crime is to prevent it,” Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said after his department released the latest figures in a report.
The numbers break out this way: There were 5,061 sex assault reports in the 2013 fiscal year, which ended last September 30. That represents a 50% increase from the same period the year before.
There is no indication the spike was due to an overall increase in actual incidents, officials said.
Hagel said victims of sexual assault are “not only human beings, they are fellow soldiers, sailors and Marines. We cannot let them down.”
The issue received heightened attention from the Obama administration and Congress after last year’s report also showed a troubling jump in reported sex assaults.
A serious problem
Rep. Niki Tsongas, co-chair of the Military Sexual Assault Prevention Caucus and the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Subcommittee for Oversight and Investigations, said the figures continue to indicate a serious problem.
“The rise in reporting is encouraging, possibly signaling that legislative and military changes from recent years are having a positive impact,” she said in a statement.
But Tsongas added better reporting and other steps to address the issue “does not obviate the simple fact that these heinous crimes continue to occur at an alarming rate, to both men and women.”
Sex assault in the military has become a major concern for the Pentagon.
Senate clears military sex assault prosecution bill
An anonymous survey from 2012 found that nearly 26,000 service members said they were the victim of an incident of sexual assault or unwanted sexual contact. But only a fraction actually filed a report.
Issue involves generals, too
President Barack Obama demanded the military brass “leave no stone overturned” in efforts to prevent abuse.
Directives from this year’s report include calls to advance and sustain an appropriate culture within the military to report incidents as well as increased efforts to evaluate commander training in dealing with the issue.
There have been several instances in which senior officers, including generals, have been accused or charged with a variety of actions that constitute sexual assault. Some actually oversaw programs that sought to combat sexual assault.
The report also calls for a review of alcohol policies and highlights an effort to improve levels of reporting for male victims, long thought to be an under-reported demographic.
According to military law, sexual assault is defined as intentional sexual contact characterized by use of force, threats, intimidation, or abuse of authority or when the victim does not or cannot consent.
Tougher action in Congress fell short
It also includes categories of sexual offenses that include rape, sexual assault, aggravated sexual contact, abusive sexual contact, forcible sodomy, or attempts to commit these acts.
The issue also generated outrage in Congress, which approved reform measures last year that included a provision preventing commanders from overturning convictions.
The Senate sought to take things further, approving legislation this year imposing modest reforms to strengthen prosecution. But proponents of tougher action were disappointed the chamber rejected a proposal that would have altered the way crimes like sex assault and rape are handled.

The State of Women in Post-Berlusconi Italy

Posted: 02/06/2014 12:07 pm EST

There is much ado in Italy nowadays about harassment against women, as MS5’s leader and comic actor Beppe Grillo offered sexist remarks against the President of the Parliament Laura Boldrini.

Fact is, the situation of women in Italy has large space for improvement. It is often said that, in their professions, women need to prove themselves harder than men on the job. In Italy the problem goes beyond that. There is hardly a woman holding a leadership role who can rightfully and in all honesty claim that she never received advances or sexual comments from male colleagues, often superiors. God knows how many times I got unpleasant comments or “jokes” in the last two years, during my tenure as director of an Italian agency in Brussels. There seems to be a general assumption that women — especially younger ones — if they hold a leadership position, owe it to something unrelated to their résumé or professional capacities. In the last 20 years, Silvio Berlusconi’s ambivalent relation to women — on the one side he promoted the largest number of (especially young) women in government ever, on the other he treated women as objects — think of the bunga-bunga affair — has only worsened the general climate for women in power. This makes it very hard for women to come out and denounce harassment.

It does not help that Italian legislation does not provide women with a possibility to go to court to denounce harassment. In Italy, until 1981 there was even a special legislation concerning “honor killings,” essentially exempting men found guilty of assassinating a female relative from serving long periods in jail. In 1998, a judge refused to sentence a man for rape justifying it also with the fact that the victim was wearing jeans and “therefore” she could not be undressed unless she wanted to.

Significantly enough, there is not even an equivalent to the terms moral or sexual harassment in the Italian language. The only form of harassment that is somewhat protected by law is harassment in the workplace — but only and if one can prove that persecution led to physical sickness — and stalking — but here again only if the stalker constantly repeats his acts across time and his actions produce such anxiety and fears to force the victim to change her lifestyle.

To be fair, women themselves have a long way to go. In Italy there is no concept of sisterhood like in the U.S. or the UK; sadly, it is often women who — once having reached leadership positions — turn their back to other women.

One can only hope that the disdain that followed Grillo’s remarks will lead to a much-needed change. The key point for change is the ability for women to go to court to defend their rights; the first step therefore can only be passing specific legislation: will Italian women finally join forces and act?

Follow Federiga Bindi on Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/fedbindi

Belgian survey reveals sexual assault is endemic

by Paola Battista – 02.19.2014
Sexual violence is shaking Belgium. A survey carried out by Dedicated and Amnesty International, in collaboration with SosViol, found that on average 25.6% of the total population have been affected. These statistics strike at the heart of the home of European institutions, given the 20% increase in cases of rape reported to the Belgian police (from 3,380 in 2009 to 3,787 in 2013). Furthermore, one in four women has been a victim of physical harassment in a public place. According to the survey, dated January 2014, 56% of Belgians know at least one person who has suffered serious sexual assault, while 46% of respondents of both sexes have had first-hand experience of being sexually assaulted. The aggressor is often known, given that 7% of women have been the victim of a sexual relationship imposed by a superior in the workplace and 24.9% have been attacked by a partner or family member. Seven per cent of sexual attacks are carried out on children. However, all the statistics are just the tip of the iceberg because 40% of the victims said they had never reported the attack, not even in confidence.

Apple supplier review uncovers fewer child labor cases

Thu Feb 13, 2014 7:10pm IST

(Reuters) – Apple Inc (AAPL.O) uncovered fewer cases of child labor than a year ago in its annual survey of the international supply chain that makes parts for its iPhones and iPads.

In its eighth annual supply-chain report, Apple also said the metal tantalum, an essential component in many electronic products, had not been sourced from war zones.

Apple, the world’s most valuable technology company, has been accused by labor rights groups of building profits on the back of poorly treated and underpaid workers in Asia.

The company, which sold 150 million iPhones in 2013, audited 451 plants operated by various parts suppliers. Collectively, these plants employ nearly 1.5 million people. (link.reuters.com/fac86v)

Apple’s latest audit found 23 underage workers at companies supplying it with components. The previous year’s audit had uncovered 74 underage workers at a single supplier.

In the report, Apple said some third-party recruiters had hired young workers illegally and without the knowledge of the hiring companies. (r.reuters.com/gyc86v)

Cupertino, Califorina-based Apple relies heavily on Asian partners, such as Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group, for the assembly of its iPhones and iPads.

Further up the supply chain, companies must procure essential metals such as tantalum, sometimes known as ‘conflict minerals’ due to their sale by armed groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola and South Sudan.

Apple said its suppliers did not procure tantalum from any third-party providers linked to armed groups in various warring African countries.

“In January 2014 we confirmed that all active, identified tantalum smelters in our supply chain were verified as conflict-free by third-party auditors,” Apple said in the report.

“We’re pushing our suppliers of tin, tungsten and gold just as hard to use verified sources,” the company said.

The latest report identified 106 facilities that did not pay night-shift workers appropriately for legal holidays, and 105 plants that did not provide sufficient social insurance.

Apple said it had identified some abuses of migrant workers and, as a result, required suppliers to reimburse foreign contract workers $3.9 million in excessive fees paid to labor brokers.

Apple’s suppliers achieved an average of 95 percent compliance with its standard maximum 60-hour work week, the company said in the report.

(Reporting by Chris Peters and Supantha Mukherjee in Bangalore; Editing by Kirti Pandey and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)

Workplace is no longer safe for Patna women: Study

Pranava Kumar Chaudhary, TNN Dec 15, 2013, 08.41PM IST

PATNA :”Workplace is no longer safe for the city women as cases of their harassment at work are rising rapidly. This is true of government offices, private sector establishments and also households”, said a recent study “Holding Up half the sky: Myth and Reality” A status report

The 20-page study jointly conducted by Equity Foundation Patna and Actionaid Bihar. The report said :”Fresh graduates from universities are the most vulnerable targets at the workplace. The young girls who have recently passed out from colleges are joining different private sector companies as trainees”.

The findings of the survey said that these girls are sought to be lured by their immediate bosses with promises of a salary hike to permanent job.

“We have interviewed cross section of working women in various government and private organisations in the city”, said executive director of the Equity Foundation Neena Srivastava.

“Apart from women in the age group of 20-30 years, women in their early thirties and married are also being targeted at their workplace by their male counterparts. Passing lewd remarks, spreading defamatory rumours and using abusive language have become everyday affairs for working women of the city”, she said.

According to findings, many women face incidents that are non-physical. Violence against women is a case of human rights violation – be it domestic violence or sexual harassment at workplace – verbal or physical. Many women come for counselling, focusing on how to handle the situation as they fear losing their job and social reputation.

Divya (name changed), who works with a life insurance company, said, “”After joining, I became friendly with a male colleague. Soon, cheap gossip started spreading about us. Somehow, we managed to stay calm and not react to the situation.

The report also said crime against women in Bihar has increased about 65% in three years, placing it on top among all states. The police reported more than 870 cases of rape in Bihar last year (2012).

The figures show 56 per cent of women in the state aged between 15 and 49 years were subjected to physical and sexual violence as against the national average of 35 per cent in Bihar.

Quoting National Crime Research Bureau ( NCRB) statistics, the report said 6,186 registered cases in 2008 against 10,231 in 2011 – show that there has been a constant rise in incidents of violent crime against women in Bihar.

Police officials admit that more than 1,000 cases of rape and sexual assault are pending in the courts in Bihar as there are no fast track courts to deal with such cases, report said.

According to study, Bihar ranks second in the country in terms of dowry deaths. Only 24.2 per cent families in Bihar have toilets. Some 85% of the rural households in the state, one of India’s poorest, have no access to a toilet. Most of the cases of rape of women and girls in Bihar state occur when they go out to defecate in the open.

Indian media at a crossroads

Dec 23, 2013. Female journalists encountering sexual abuse at work is nothing new in this growingly intolerant world. Most of them, however, fail to replicate the courage that they display professionally to speak out about the harassment they often fall victim to while on assignment.
The reason — female scribes do not want to lose any opportunity to be at ground zero to cover sensational events. Sharing such predicaments with their bosses or even peers would make them look vulnerable to physical assault or abuse in critical situations. Hence, the management might be tempted to jettison lady journos in favor of their male counterparts whenever something major happened. Organizations working to protect the rights of media persons might be keeping detailed records of the number of journalists — of both sexes — killed on duty; they certainly are oblivious of the growing cases of sexual crime against women journalists. Ironically two-third of working lady journalists is at risk at their own workplaces. But what happens when the boss himself turns into a tormentor? Indeed, India today is searching for that elusive answer after the infamous Tehelka sex scandal rocked the headlines at the fag end of November last. The saner elements of a dumbstruck nation are absolutely agonized by the allegation of sexual abuse lodged against an editor of a reputed newsmagazine by one of his female colleagues. That the sordid affair has drawn so much attention and has been a cause of concern to many is because the senior editor who stands accused today of committing a heinous crime has been a loyal foot-soldier, fighting consistently to preserve progressive values over the years.
In fact, the editor is known to be a renowned critic of any socio-political transgression. And one rash, despicable act has not only tarnished the reputation of Indian media but also the sanctity of the fourth estate as a whole. Now, it has become difficult for people — who used to be the mirror of society — to use their pen as swords for exposing all forms of injustices occurring in every nook and corner. After all, a brand of repute cannot attract the same attention once it has fallen from grace due to bad publicity. It is ironic that those who are, as part of their job etiquette, required to stand on the side of the victims are themselves stranded at a crossroads today.
The media fraternity unfortunately finds itself in a tight spot because both the perpetrator and the victim are fellow comrades. Hard questions are already being raised about the capability of various institutions to dispense justice in a credible and fair way after the victim’s own organization ditched her.
Given the all-embracing shareholding pattern of the tainted newsmagazine, an impression has somehow gained ground that political actors were deliberately engaged in a criminal cover-up by way of politicizing this sensitive issue. But such scandals, often involving the influential and most unexpected players, should be seen as a manifestation of a larger malaise — that of moral degradation creeping into the veins of a nation. Violence against women has in fact become a cultural problem stemming primarily from the culture of a male-child receiving greater attention and indulgence in Indian household.
The epidemic of sexual harassment also reveals something very eerie about the state of mind of Indian men. Sometime ago, a survey conducted by the International Center for Research on Women had found Indian men to be the least gender equal and most sexually violent with one in every four male committing sexual violence at some point in their lives. So, under such circumstances, can laws alone prevent a woman from being groped or molested or raped at workplaces? Perhaps, India as a nation needs to do some serious soul-searching to find a suitable answer.
After all, whom do we blame for an alarming increase in illegal sexual conduct or for that matter the failure to provide adequate safety provisions for maintaining the dignity of working women? Do we point our fingers at the lawmakers, many of whom carry grave charges of assault against women? Or should we accuse the sloth bureaucratic super-structure for failing the Indian women miserably? Let us not forget that the landmark law against sexual harassment at workplace, enacted by the Congress-led UPA government after much public clamor, was functionless for long because of administrative negligence. Thanks to this now infamous bureaucratic inertia, the relevant rules of the “Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and Redresal) Act 2013” came into effect only on Dec. 16 even though it received the president’s assent last April. Significantly, a hike in the number of workingwomen in India was accompanied by a proportionate rise in the number of sexual harassment at workplaces. Shamefully, as high as 79 percent of working women are troubled by the verbal form of sexual abuse and except a notable few, all incidents goes unreported. Shockingly, the fear of being discriminated in a male dominated working environment, getting sacked and even a tarnished reputation often prevents the harassed ladies from lodging official complaints. It is therefore time for the society to realize that workplace violence is a hidden menace with tangible consequences. Hence, to ensure that productivity is not hampered by the erosion of decent working conditions, which might create a socioeconomic havoc in the long run, an effective remedial mechanism is needed urgently.

Understanding How to Survive Workplace Bullying and Abuse

Shelley Nash
Posted On December 7, 2013 At 2:47 Pm

Workplace bullying and abuse has a long history in our society. The term “going postal” entered the English language after a series of workplace shootings in U.S. Post Offices. It is used to indicate a person’s behavior that is extremely angry to the point of violence in a workplace environment. We often hear about workplace shootings, about people “going postal,” but what we don’t hear about is the far more prevalent workplace traumas that are suffered by people in abusive working environments. This workplace post traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is severely damaging to the psyche and careers of thousands and yet, it’s rarely discussed or understood because it doesn’t result in media stories of violence. It’s much more insidious than that.
We often joke about how difficult work is or how terrible bosses can be. Many movies such as Office Space and Horrible Bosses have turned workplace complaints into humorous tales on the big screen. However, what actually happens when someone has a truly abusive workplace is less funny and more tragic. PTSD is generally associated with people who have returned from fighting in war-torn countries and people who have experienced horrendous tragedies such as watching their entire family be brutally murdered. These situations and events are generally accepted as traumatic, but it is also possible to suffer trauma when one has been emotionally abused, humiliated, and bullied in the workplace.
The first step in understanding and helping is to accept that workplaces can cause PTSD. Many people do not like their jobs, their bosses, or their co-workers. Complaining about one’s job is a rite of passage in America where the after-work happy hour is consumed by tales of the the idiot boss. It’s important to understand that the situations that can cause workplace PTSD are not the normal, everyday annoyances at work. Work abuse is still largely ignored by society in general because the prevailing theory is that “everyone hates their job.” That makes it easy to ignore the very real trauma caused by toxic work environments.

What Situations Cause Workplace Trauma?
Many situations fit in this category, but people generally report feeling most traumatized by bullying at work by co-workers and bosses, abusive tactics, harassment, and discrimination. For Christy*, the abuse occurred when a male superior took an intense and unwanted interest in her. As a young married professional, Christy had a senior male colleague who took her under his wing and mentored her. She described him as a straight-laced religious man who had a wife and family. Because of this, she didn’t suspect his motives were anything but professional.
When Christy’s close relative was in the hospital with life-threatening injuries and her mentor found out she had spoken to other colleagues about it before she talked to him, he became offended and angry and accused her of leading him on and using him. Christy says “He even became delusional enough to go around telling other co-workers that he and I were in love and going to run away together. He did not take my rejections well and became confrontational. He sent me threatening emails. He once cornered me in a conference room early in the morning, causing me to scream and other office workers ran in to help.”
For Mary*, the abuse started with her boss and continued when she was transferred to another group. “One day, I was in my boss’s office, and he started screaming at me. Not yelling or raising his voice, but absolutely just screaming. It was very disturbing. It didn’t happen very many times, because I didn’t stand for it. I gave it a little time to see if it had been a fluke or if we just needed to find a way to work together that worked for both of us. Over time, people stopped coming to me with work, because he would wait for someone to give me something, and then all of a sudden, he’d speak up and say, ‘She can’t help you. She’s doing work for me!’ He would even say this when it wasn’t true.”
Mary asked to be transferred, but unfortunately went from the frying pan into the fire.
“In the second group, I was the second of two assistants. The lead assistant was one of the meanest, craziest people I have ever met. She did not smile, and she was not friendly. If I asked for work or offered to help out, she’d scream at me not to touch anything. When teaching me things, she was often not patient or kind. As a result, except for two specific tasks, one of which only came up once or twice a year, I ended up sitting idle most of the time, once again.”
It’s important to understand that workplace abuse is not always a tangible action such as being screamed at or threatened. It can also manifest itself when someone is ignored and given no responsibilities. It’s essentially workplace shunning where you are ignored by colleagues and your boss, your skills are not used, and you sit idle as in Mary’s case. When you spend eight or more hours a day in an environment where you do nothing and no one talks to you, it can have a negative effect on your mental health. “My group mostly avoids me. They do not give me work. Most days, hardly anyone even says anything to me, including my boss. It’s demoralizing. I have come to refer to this job—my whole tenure with my current company—as my ‘Twelve Year Mistake.’ I give thanks for the pay check and the insurance, but that’s about it,” said Mary.

Why Does Workplace and Abuse Happen?
Bullying and abuse can have very complex underlying reasons, but according to the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI), targets of bullying and workplace abuse are usually chosen because they pose a threat to the bully. This threat perception may be entirely in the mind of the bully, but the belief that the target is a threat drives the bully to act out. Workplace bullies have low self-esteem and may come from abusive backgrounds themselves. They admire their target’s abilities and they often fear that they are not good enough. If they can make their target feel badly enough, if they can push the focus away from their target’s good qualities, they can somehow hide their own lack of ability.
In some cases, the bully is not a person who has low self-esteem, but rather is a person with a lot of power as in the case of executives and senior management. They can become “drunk” with that power and the ability to push others around, to take their own stress and aggression out on others. Put simply, they bully because they can. Senior and upper management often have a lot of power and little to no oversight so they can easily get away with this behavior. The target is seen as the troublemaker rather than the bully.
This was true for Mary who, when she asked HR to transfer her to another group, was told “I don’t want to transfer a problem.” At Mary’s company, “…the lower ranking employee is always the problem.” This happens in other companies as well. It is easier for the company to handle or eliminate the lower-ranking employees than it is to remove the more senior staff.
In some cases, the abuser is not a bully, but rather a person with a mental disorder or delusion. For Christy, her abuser was a senior male colleague who fixated on her. This happens between bosses and subordinates or between colleagues. In some cases, the abuse may come from the delusional belief that there is a personal or romantic relationship where none exists as was the case with Christy’s abuser who thought she was in love with him and that they would run away together. In addition to his abusive behavior toward her, Christy’s mentor was suffering professionally, having dropped the ball on several projects and been kicked off committees. He also began having issues with his appearance and hygiene. The hygiene issues and delusional belief that Christy was in love with him could be indicative of a mental disorder on the part of her abuser. Regardless, the effect of his behavior was very real and very harmful.

Why Don’t You Tell Someone about the Workplace Bullying and Abuse?
Why do targets of abuse and bullying not tell someone? Why don’t they complain? These questions are often asked, but it is not that simple. Unfortunately, at least in the American workplace culture, telling someone can have devastating effects on a career. This was certainly the case for Christy. “So why had I not done anything at this point? Because of the way my field works. I was new to my field, he was a senior professional, and I was just trying to start my career. Right or wrong, it would mean the end of my career right in the beginning because I would have that stigma.”
When Mary went to her boss about the problems she was having, it only made things worse. “I went to our boss about this at one point, but he was not helpful. That just made things worse, and people avoided me even more, which I did not know was possible.”
Although Christy knew it might be detrimental to her career, she decided to go to the head of the team when she could no longer handle her mentor’s behavior. “As it turned out, the office workers who were there the day he cornered me, and another friend, had already told her about the situation…When I talked to her, I told her I did not feel safe and showed her the emails he had sent me. I begged her not to tell him and she promised. However, she did talk to him and he essentially got no more than a slap on the wrist and it only fueled his fire.”
For both Christy and Mary, seeking help did not eliminate the problem, it only made it worse. Christy said “I am bitter that I was punished for another’s evil actions. That I was so blatantly sexually harassed not only by him but by the treatment I got after and it was all just ok. It is so easy and obvious to say ‘file charges,’ but in the real world, it doesn’t work that way. You are flagged.”

The Aftermath of Workplace Bullying and Abuse
Workplace bullying and abuse can have devastating effects for its targets. For Mary, the workplace abuse started to affect her personal life. “As I worked hard to keep a brave face on at work and continue to help my co-workers the best I could, working around my insane co-worker, my personal life started to fall apart. I worked very hard to not let home interfere with work. Eventually, I was given a poor performance review and told that if I could not find another position within the company over the next couple of months, I would be let go.”
For Christy, although her abuser eventually left the office due to his own poor performance issues at work, the abuse continued in the aftermath through the actions of her co-workers: “Everyone knew what he had done, and they knew he was crazy as he had manifested it all over. However, things were very different for me after that. Everyone treated me differently; people who had been my good friends now did not talk to me. A friend told me that many of those people saw me as some wicked woman who had ‘caused him to become that way.’ I was a victim, but it was my fault because I should have known women don’t befriend men.”
Christy was the victim, but was turned into the perpetrator. “For two years it was awkward and uncomfortable for me, but I refused to leave because I had worked very hard and I had a good reputation with my department heads. I had presented at professional development meetings for them, I had stellar observations and created trainings for others. Then one day, my female department head took me aside and suggested that since I was young and pretty, I should consider working from home because “it caused problems and rumors” and that if I was going to stay, to never talk to another male colleague. This was two years later mind you, all because of female gossip. So I finally quit.”

The Effects of Workplace Bullying and Abuse
Christy now works at a different office, but she has carried the effects of her traumatic experience with her: “I am scared of people. I am hesitant to get close to people because I am scared of them either going psychotic on me (obviously), but also because I was so hurt by people I truly deeply trusted and believed to be good friends. I used to be very involved in work stuff, sponsoring extracurricular activities and going to events etc. Now I try to keep my head down and maintain as low a profile as possible because I don’t want people to give me any notice. [This behavior] does nothing to advance a career.”
Additionally, Christy’s abuser has changed the way she presents herself at work: “I am very paranoid about how I look. I will never wear skirts or dresses to work. I never dressed inappropriately to begin with, and it should not have mattered if I did in terms of his behavior, but now I am paranoid about looking in any way sexualized – more because of the other women! In fact, when I went on the interview at the office I am at now, I purposefully did not wear make-up.”
Mary still works at her office because she cannot afford to quit, but she has been subjected to cruel behavior, including receiving an email meant for someone else from the woman she replaced. “One time, I got an email from her, meant for someone else, about me. She was going on and on about what an airhead I was—just because I still had questions—and how they’d better not ask her for input on my review, because she “would not be nice.” I played it off, played dumb when she said ‘Oh! That was meant for someone else.’” Because she was being ignored and not given much to do, Mary’s performance reviews suffered as well. “My six-month review came as a total surprise to me. I was given nothing but negative feedback, which devastated me. No one had come to me in the intervening months to indicate there was any kind of problem. I had heard nothing, so I thought things were fine, or at worst, neutral. What I heard at my six-month review was, essentially, ‘You are crap, and you are not a nice person. No one wants to work with you.’ What could I do? Not much, so I just listened and answered the few questions they had and moved on. Inside, I was dying.”
Mary’s experience has left her with health problems and issues trusting people: I have physical health problems that I did not have before I worked here. My people skills are not what they used to be. I have a hard time trusting people, and it is hard for me to appear open and friendly, even though I actually am.”

What can you do to Survive Workplace Bullying and Abuse?
Workplace abuse and bullying is very real and very traumatizing. It is easy to say that quitting is the obvious option, but paying the bills prevents that option for many. However, there are things you can do when you can’t quit:
The Workplace Bullying Institute
Visit the site of the Workplace Bullying Institute. It has a lot of information regarding workplace abuse and can help you find resources to assist you in coping with your trauma.
Seek therapy
If your company has an Employee Assistance Program (EAP) make use of it. If there is no EAP, seek outside sources of help. If you can afford individual therapy, seek out a therapist who specializes in PTSD or anxiety disorders.
Groups
People often don’t realize that group therapy is available and can be very helpful. Seek out groups in your area for anxiety and depression. Those are the most likely groups to assist with workplace trauma issues. Groups are often free through churches or mental health organizations such as DBSA or NAMI. Consider starting your own group for workplace issues if you can’t find one. You are not alone in your experience and it can help to hear that from others.
Continue your job search
It’s tough out there right now. Finding a new job is not easy, but it can help to continue the search because that can give you hope of getting out of your current position. Sometimes hope is enough to allow you to continue pushing forward when you can’t leave your job.
Use your vacation and sick time
When you’re in a traumatic environment, it becomes more important than ever to use the time you’re given away from work. Take a “sick day” in the middle of the week. It helps to break up the week when you work two days, take one day, and then work two more. It can give you that small boost you need to keep going through the last two days of the week. Plan a vacation outside your city if you can afford it, but if you can’t you should still use your vacation time. Even if all you do during that time is stay home and watch movies, it’s still an escape from the demoralizing environment at work.
Outside activities
Make your life outside of work as happy and productive as you can. Exercise, a new hobby, a pet, friends, and getting out of the house help a lot. Having something to look forward to after the grind of getting through an abusive work environment can boost your spirits.

Know that it is not you
Abusive work environments cause us to question ourselves sometimes. Are we the problem? Are we doing something to cause this? Should we be better employees or colleagues? Always keep in mind that abuse is not about you. You are NOT the problem! It may sound funny, but say that to yourself every day in the mirror before going to work. “I am not the problem.” It can help reinforce the fact that this is about the dysfunctional workplace, not you.
*Names and identifying details have been changed.