Problems at work.... I've had enough after eight months.

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I've been thinking long and hard about whether I should post this work story online - as if it is found, it may provide the ammo for my superiors to launch disciplinaries at me.

Basically, I started working for a charity that helps people with learning disabilities eight months ago. Initially, I loved my job; I loved the people I worked with, and I made friends with about 95% of the office workforce.

But then it all changed. A new senior management team (SMT) came along, and their b****y behaviour, coupled with being nasty to people, made me think twice about how much I loved my job. During my counselling, I talked to my counsellor about my workplace a lot, and she suggested that I start looking for new jobs, as she thought I needed a change from an office where free speech was not tolorated and the SMT was criticised whenever all the members of the SMT were absent from the office.

Finally, I started talking to other workers (who are a lot older and wiser) and friends out of the office (in cars, most of the time), and I began to discover that I was being employed mainly for statistical reasons - the fact that I have a learning disability being one of them.

Could anyone give advice on whether I should leave/look for other jobs, or stay? People have told me that I'll encounter back-stabbing, b*****g behaviour all the time at work, but as I can work well (and make friends - I've been out with a few friends from work) with others, I think that there are some places where harrassment and bullying are not tolerated. Completely.

I've never seen a work environment where there was no harrassing and no bullying. I don't think that there is any way to avoid it. Best try to learn some techniques for dealing with it.

I deal with bullies using a big wooden club.

I don't tolerate being terrorised too well
according to some people.

I've been in a lot of different jobs, and just about every time I left a job, I felt relieved that I would never have to put up with that kind of idiot again. But, guess what? I had to put up with the exact same type of idiot again, and kept seeing the same type of personalities and behaviors over and over again, just with different faces. It is as if I was encountering the exact same person, only with a different mask, and each successive time the person behind the mask became keener and keener on revenge. Finally, at the end, all that I could do was watch and wait. There was really nothing else for me to do.

sadly, you're always going to have to deal with a***holes and bullies. for the most part i just ignore them until they get bored and go away. showing any sort of reaction, it seems, just goads them on. tho it IS sucky when they're part of your management team and you depend on their reviews for your continued employment. my last manager micro-managed the hell out of me, constantly bothered me, and always gave me the lowest rating he could on my reviews. he was a stuffy, 1970's-style IBM corporate type. sorry, the world doesn't work that way anymore. and he couldn't grasp the AS issues i had. a lot of times i just wanted to scream at these managers and coworkers "JUST LEAVE ME ALONE AND LET ME DO MY F**KING JOB". but i'm sure that would have gotten me fired.

and it seems to be worse for you if you have some sore of major difference or mental condition. i'm also bipolar, and the meds they had me on at one point made me sleepy. this coupled with the heat being cranked to max every winter made me doze off at my desk a few times. the local office bullies and complainers had me hauled in to explain to 3 different managers that i wasn't just a slacker, it was medication doing it and out of my control. i had to provide a letter from my doctor verifying that drowsiness was indeed a side effect. the machiavellian backstabbing and middle-school class bullying eventually made me start to call in sick to work more often than not. at one point i was only at work 41% of the time i was scheduled to be.

i'm also reminded of an incident that happened to a friend of mine at work one day. we went through the door, and one of the office drama queens was walking up behind us. she wasn't particularly fond of us, probably because she sucked at her job, and we were promoted over her and had more direct control over her daily tasks. he politely waited and held the door for her - like anyone raised with proper manners would do. she filed a sexual harrassment complaint against him. apparently it was sexist to not let her open the door for herself.

You got lucky/fortunate.

Some how, my circuits never could get
the programming and I malfunctioned
again and again.

Not with a club in these cases but
with other malfunctions that I could not
stop.

You will always have as*holes in a work environment. Learn how to deal with them. Also don't b***h to coworkers. No matter what, they will never be your friends.

Some are worse than others.

Being employed for statistical reasons is an awesome way to be. It's like being black at a government/big firm's office. You know you can never get fired for anything short of murder because employers are terrified of an EEOC lawsuit.

Some offices are like three times better than others. Yes, there might be one or two jackasses but they're not the norm.

Now, the standard advice is that it's easier to look for a job with a job (I have very seldom been able to follow this standard advice because a bad job drains me so much). But if you can, and I think the thing is to go for a job a little bit better than your current job, that way no one can really blame you. Or even a job a medium amount better.

Good luck! I've had many jobs over the years, & unfortunately, I've never really found any to be free of jerks &/or bullies.

Yes, true, but some work places are like an order of magnitude better than others.