High-Achieving Superstars Are Often Prime Targets of Workplace Bullying

Workplace bullies by nature are very insecure people. It is their mission to not be "found out" as they delude themselves into a false sense of power while they secretly plot to subjugate their target. Superstar employees are frequently the targets of bullying at work.

The insecurity of workplace bullies is far reaching. They feel socially inadequate, behaviourally and morally. While they present a public image of superiority, supremacy and bravado, underneath it all they feel profoundly inadequate. Workplace bullies, instead of facing their inferiorities, choose rather to mink lashes out at anyone who threatens their superiority.

When competent, bright, self-assured people enter the domain of workplace bullies, their strategy is to attack rather than avoid. This gives them a sense of power and control, convincing them that despite their deep inadequacies they still rule.

Bullies at work use a myriad of covert methods to sabotage the competent employee. They spread rumors, misrepresent the accomplishment of the target, and often take credit for the target's work. They gossip about the individual. All of this chicanery is used to prop up their wobbly self-image.

Bullies at work will frequently constrain the work of their employees. How? By piling unreasonable amounts of work on a target, restricting budget, constantly criticizing, and anything else to undermine the target's success and sense of competency. Being in control by wielding power is an addiction for workplace bullies.

They will be unreasonable in their demands, so they can witness the failure of someone else, giving them a sinister rush as they witness the failure of one who is more competent.

Workplace bullies assume the role of overlord as they demand that the target produce something out of nothing. Workplace bullies enjoy watching the target 'sweat under the load'. They cover up their own sense of nothingness by their repetitive, intoxicating power fix.

By constantly criticizing competent employees, workplace bullies don't feel so lonely in their haunting self-criticism. In undermining the competent employee, workplace bullies convince themselves that they are still able to subjugate another, despite their brutal self-perception.

Some workplace bullying targets are savvy enough to see through the 'bullying game' and find ways to outsmart their nemesis. Eventually however, they are likely to look for greener pastures, refusing to endure the aggravation.

However, others, who do not recognize the game or choose not to compete with the bully, are not so fortunate. They will try harder and harder to please, but to no avail. Eventually they will be worn down by the bully and begin to sustain severe psychological damage.

Competent employees who become targets of bullying in the workplace are very often ethical, just, fair and honourable people. Naively, many of them expect the same of others as well. Sadly they become fodder for hungry workplace bullies waiting to satisfy their compulsion for control.

Workplace bullies need to be 'brought to heel' by exposing their Machiavellian tactics and seeing them for who they are. Employers and law-makers cannot afford to ignore this workplace epidemic any longer. They must act now to protect their brightest and best from unnecessary and deliberate ruination.

If you are a superstar, and feel that you are becoming a target of bullying in the workplace, know that you have every right to continue being the superstar in everything you do. You are more than the workplace bully's low self-image; you are a 'superstar'.

Valerie Cade is a workplace bullying expert and author of Bully Free At Work. For more tips, articles, how-to's, and podcasts, visit THE resource to stop workplace bullying