Speak Up: How to tell your story if you are a target of Bullying

The strategies suggested here are adapted from How to Bust the Office Bully: Eight Tactics for Explaining Workplace Abuse to Decision Makers, by Dr. Sarah J. Tracey, Dr. Jess K. Alberts, & Kendra Dyanne Rivera by Staff Ombuds Office.

Be Rational  

• Tell the story in a linear fashion (beginning – middle – end).
• Write out the story before meeting with your supervisor.
• Identify 3-5 critical incidents to share.
• Practice telling the story to someone you trust.
• Make an outline and bring it to the meeting with your supervisor.

Express Emotions Appropriately  

• Create a vivid verbal image of the abuse, but avoid becoming distraught or emotionally out of control.
• To help manage your emotions, envision that the abuse happened to someone else and you are describing what occurred.
• Practice telling the story multiple times using a calm voice and confident body language.
• While telling the story, if necessary, pause and take several deep breaths to regain your composure.

 Provide Consistent Details

• To the extent possible, document the details of the abuse as it occurs.
• If you have not kept a log, sit down with a calendar and piece together your memories with as much detail of each incident as possible.
• If co-workers witnessed the incident, utilize their memories of what occurred.
• To help ensure consistency, write down when and what you reported to supervisors and refer back to this when making future reports.

Offer a Plausible Story 

• Reference published reports and research that verify the reality of workplace bullying (see Resources for more information).
• Keep your stories as clear and simple as possible.
• Don’t dwell on the more outrageous incidents that others may easily disbelieve.

*Flyers with this content as well as other self help resources are available through Staff Omubuds.