I'm sad to say that I'm no stranger to bullying. I was picked on in primary school and bullied throughout the entirety of secondary school. As you can imagine, because of this I absolutely loathed school. Every Sunday evening I would lie awake in bed, absolutely dreading heading off on Monday morning. I couldn't wait for the day that I could leave school and the bullying would end once and for all.
But I was wrong.
You see, the thing that most people don't talk about when they talk about bullying is that it can happen to anyone, no matter your age. I have had 7 jobs from the age of 16 and I was bullied at 4 of them, the most recent being only at the end of last year, at the age of 22.
Similarly to when I was at school, I would dread heading into work, hoping and praying that the people who were awful to me wouldn't be on shift that day. The funny thing is, you think that by the time you've left school people will have either grown out of picking on each other, or you're kind of immune as an adult.
And the worst part is, bullying as an adult is hardly spoken about. Most people don't report it out of fear of seeming weak or petty and those who do are often greeted with poor excuses or brushed off.
In my first job, at the age of 16, I was bullied by a woman in her 30's. I know, a woman in her 30's picking on a teenager? Get a life, love! Anyway, she would often make my life hell, spreading rumours, scolding me in front of colleagues and requesting that I be moved if I was placed to work in the same area as her. There was very little I could do. She was respected by my manager and in the eyes of everyone else, a good employee.
In what would be my final retail job, one girl decided that she hated me. No reason, she just decided it one day. She would give me filthy looks all the time, turn the other girls against me and often stand in my way of things, refusing to move. At the work Christmas party I sang karaoke with a colleague and she and her friends made a point of only cheering for him and remaining silent for me. This one, however, I did mention.
The response?
"Well, not everyone is going to like you."
Wow. Thanks.
I didn't take it further because the job was temporary and I knew I'd be out of there soon enough. But it made me sick that these people; these insignificant, sad people, could get away with treating people like crap. And if they did it to me, who else would they do it to?
1.5 million young people were bullied in the UK in 2016.
The worst thing is, people who have been bullied are twice as likely to bully others.
It's a vicious circle.
Anti Bullying Week is coming up on the 13th November and it's an absolutely fantastic cause to raise awareness for the issue.
I guess the main reason for writing this is to show you that if you have been bullied or you are being bullied, you're not alone. Whether it's in school, at work or online, we should not let it stand. You can find more information on what to do if you're being bullied at work on the Bullying UK website. If your manager won't do anything to help you then you can take it further. Making someone else feel bad is never acceptable.
Let me know in the comments if you've ever been bullied and whether or not you were able to stop it. I would be really interested to know x
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