Subject: Jocelyn - effective leader or bully?

This is about balance. The welcome employment law changes legislating against harrassment in the workplace were designed to protect us,  and not enable us to shoehorn every urgent request by email, and request for action in team meetings into a harrassment claim. Jocelyn is a results driven individual, who clearly relies on her team to provide her with the tools she needs to raise funds. She is successful in what she does. Could this resignation be more about the green eyed monster?

I was in this very position of being low level bullied by a campaigns manager who (in retrospect) was taking out her stress on her team. The really galling thing was that pretty much as soon as I left the building (a job and employer I really loved and believed in) she handed in her notice. They then recruited for an interim manager to cover her role while they reorganised but I was too far into a new contract (at a job rather than a career) to go back.

There was one particular post in the department that had three people doing the job over a year - each choosing to leave because of the managers style. Nothing illegal, just unpleasant to work with.

The problem with this sort of low level bullying is that it is too easily ignored by more senior management as being "a personality clash" . I actually quite liked my manager out of the office (we played on the charity sports team together for a while) but she seemed unable to change her management style - and it got too much in the end.

Thanks for a great illustrative story. When I have looked up bullying in the workplace online before I have felt that my case wasn't really bullying because the illustrations are of horrendous over the top cases. This was something I could relate to, and it helps me rationalise my actions (with the benefits of hindsight). 

Right. Therapy session over (thanks again). I am off for a coffee!