I was spending a rainy Sunday indoors, I could have gone out but was happy flicking through my computer. I had some Simon Sinek on YouTube when some workplace bullying videos appeared, one had a whiteboard behind with a list of points. The video really didn’t work through the list, so I thought I would work through the list.

1. Smear campaigns.
2. False accusations.
3. Sabotage.
4. Playing the victim.
5. Stonewalling.
6. Weaponising colleagues and superiors.
7. Scapegoating.

A smear campaign is a premeditated effort to undermine the credibility, reputation and character of the person being attacked. In my workplace, this involved staff leaking information [including misinformation] to damage the standing of the person targeted. This leaking caused irreparable damage to the individual, absolutely undermining his reputation in the workplace. If enough people in the group are leaking confidential information, then the people creating the misinformation campaign tend to have a degree of authority.

I have seen the devastating effects of false accusations levelled against an individual, this was a collaborative effort waged by an individual bequeathed a undeserved prime role, all he had to do to maintain that position was rat everyone out. He used that office and the authority bestowed in that role for self-preservation and self-indulgence.

The act of sabotage in a business setting undermines not only the targeted individual, it undermines the organisational in general. The management needs to display the required leadership to actually control the direction of the workplace, the management needs to use the authority they hold to ensure all staff are treated equally.

When it all goes wrong and the truth comes out, accusers can be expert at playing the victim. They present themselves as the ones falsely wronged and unfairly treated to elicit sympathy, to influence outcomes and to avoid accountability. Playing the victim is a form of learned helplessness, this is almost a comical performance when the situation has been turned and the individual finds themselves facing scrutiny for their actions.

Weaponising colleagues is an interesting proposition when discussing workplace bullying, this includes spreading false rumours to undermine the credibility competence in an attempt to get someone fired. Likewise, they create a toxic atmosphere that they control, this includes malicious gossip in an attempt to make individuals or a group of individuals resign.

Scapegoating is the act of blaming an individual for something bad that someone else did. There are four basic types of scapegoating, that is 1) axe grinding [grievance], 2) patsy [blamed], 3) framing [false implication] and 4) reckoning [avenging and punishing]. So when I identify the tactics used, it is easier to call out in the workplace and apply remedial actions.