The Destabilisation Merry-Go-Round

The person who bullies me has gone on holiday. This is such a relief !

Left in her wake, though, is a pile of p**h created by the tactic of destabilisation. This is a ploy used to keep people disorientated, anxious and prevent them from forming alleigiances that might help them stand up to the bully.

'puh', the bully in my workplace, is a manager, so she has the power to alter what roles people are asked to fill. She has abused this power this week to destabilise the whole section.

Organisational change is sometimes necessary, but how this has been handled by 'puh' has put everyone on the back foot. 'puh' has put several people into new roles they are unhappy with, even doing so when people had specifically said 'please don't put me in such a place'; she has done exactly what they asked her not to do. To me this seems to be deliberate, manipulative cruelty. This has even led to one of my colleagues resigning because she feels so vehemently that she does not want to fulfill the new role assigned to her by 'puh'. She actually tried to protest the action with human resources (doesn't that title say so much ?) and was told that she signed her contract saying she'd do anything, so she had no cause for complaint.

('Bad Contracts' are one of the ways of institutionalising bullying. I'll look at that with you sometime).


I don't want this blog to simply be a place where I look to cry on peoples shoulders or to rant against the injustices being inflicted on me by the bully in my workplace. I want to examine bullying behaviours and possible solutions and share successful tactics with people. I could go on and on, getting increasingly more vituperous about 'puh', but that would be giving her power, and that isn't going to be what happens here.

'puh' has made two errors with her use of destabilisation... She has given reasons for why she is doing it which don't hold up under scrutiny and she has left the gate open for the victims of the tactic to compare notes. This means that the tactic has been exposed for what it is, a ploy to demonstrate her control over us and keep us on the hop. We all realise what is going on...

So my question this week is:

How to deal with the tactic of destabilisation ? Answers please, folks.