Bullying

Bullying can come in various forms a few of which are listed below

If you are being bullied or have concerns that someone you know is being bullied, there are support and advice centres that can help you, please see the links on this page.

Bullying at work

You shouldn't have to put up with bullying at work. Read about what bullying is and how to tell if you are being bullied, and details of what you can do to stop it.

What is bullying at work?
Bullying at work is when someone tries to intimidate another worker, often in front of colleagues. It is usually, though not always, done to someone in a less senior position. It is similar to harassment, which is where someone's behaviour is offensive. For example, making sexual comments, or abusing someone's race, religion or sexual orientation.

Examples of bullying behaviour
Bullying includes abuse, physical or verbal violence, humiliation and undermining someone's confidence. You are probably being bullied if, for example, you are:

• constantly picked on
• humiliated in front of colleagues
• regularly unfairly treated
• physically or verbally abused
• blamed for problems caused by others
• always given too much to do, so that you regularly fail in your work
• regularly threatened with the sack
• unfairly passed over for promotion or denied training opportunities
• Bullying can be face-to-face, in writing, over the phone or by fax or email.

Cyber bullying
Two thirds of all bullying is verbal, and increasingly this happens in un-moderated chat rooms or by instant messaging, or via text messages on mobile phones. Bullying can be subtle but most of the time, if your child is being bullied, they know who is doing it to them.

What you can do:

• get them to show you any messages they've received or to tell you immediately if anything new happens
• tell them never to respond to an internet bully in a chat room, and never respond to abusive text messages
• make sure they stick to moderated chat rooms
• tell them that bullying usually stops once they tell other people about it
• if bullying or abuse starts in a chat room, encourage your children to leave immediately and tell you - you can then contact the moderator or the site manager/editor
• tell them never to give out personal contact details online or put photographs of themselves up on websites

|Further advice for parents on bullying and cyber bullying

|Help and advice from cyber mentors