As rumours of bullying at No 10 emerge, a Times writer looks at abusive behaviour in the workplace — and experts offer advice on how to cope with it."Cary Cooper, Professor of Organisational Psychology and Health in Lancaster University Management School, defines bullying as the persistent, demeaning and devaluing treatment of an individual. It does not have to involve physical or verbal abuse, he says, and there is a fine line between an assertive or abrasive style of management and bullying.
“Ultimately, bullying is in the eye of the beholder,” he says.
“But if at the end of the day every time I interact with you I am putting you down, or withholding resources from you, or setting unmanagable deadlines, then I am bullying you.
“It’s not just shouting and yelling at you in a Malcolm Tucker sort of way.”
