Where Do The Bullies Go?
There has been a great outpouring of sympathy, empathy and outrage these past few years as childhood bullying has been purged to the surface of our Social Conscience.
Like many who have come before me and tragically will come after me, I have been an unwilling victim of bullying.
It started in Elementary School so many long years ago because I was an overweight girl from a poor family.
I endured years of harassment verbal, physical and ...yes.. even sexual abuse at the hands of my peers both male and female.
Like all victims I was terrified to tell anyone and lived with my secret all to myself.
We know well now the stories of those who have endured, but what of the Bullies themselves? What happens to predators as they come up through the ranks of society?
For some they continue their sick ways and become adults who abuse those who cannot really fight back such as animals, kids, spouses, the elderly and the physically and mentally vulnerable.
And of course they end up in the workplace, the same workplace as the rest of us.
I recently lost my job due in part to two bullies who were there before me and have had substantial time to weave themselves into the fabric of this particular work place and create a dynamic that the "Powers that be" seem helpless to stop, as they are also victims.
I am not alone. Nearly one quarter of Americans in the work place are bullied.
There are countless ideas and suggestions on how to combat and even co exist with these small and petty people and I have learned some survival techniques of my own, but here I am at the age of 49 having to find yet another job to pay the the bills. I am unfulfilled in the work place. I have always felt like an outsider in the outside world never really fitting in or finding my niche.
As I write this the memories of my bullies and their acts come rushing back and I wonder if I will ever be valued or recognized for my accomplishments and contributions to the work place, or will I just be overlooked and fade into the fabric of a Society that turns, still to this day a blind eye to just how intricate and expert bullies have become at performing their craft.
Bullies don't go away after graduation, bullies graduate to become paid participants in a world we have created to be so harsh and frightening that even the simple act of punching a time clock has become kill or be killed. Bullying kills, Bullies kill and I am not simply referring to the murders and suicides, I am referring to the hollow eyes and broken spirits of those who were killed long ago as children on a playground, yet still walk in the shadows their abusers.
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