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Although considerable research has linked workplace bullying with psychosocial and physical costs, the stories and conceptualizations of mistreatment by those targeted are largely untold. This study uses metaphor analysis to articulate and explore the emotional pain of workplace bullying and, in doing so, helps to translate its devastation and encourage change. Based on qualitative data gathered from focus groups, narrative interviews, and target drawings, the analysis describes how bullying can feel like a battle, water torture, nightmare, or noxious substance. Abused workers frame bullies as narcissistic dictators, two-faced actors, and devil figures. Employees targeted with workplace bullying liken themselves to vulnerable children, slaves, prisoners, animals, and heartbroken lovers. These metaphors highlight and delimit possibilities for agency and action. Furthermore, they may serve as diagnostic cues, providing shorthand necessary for early intervention.
Keywords: workplace bullying; emotion; metaphor analysis; work feelings; harassment
So many people have told me, "Oh, just let it go. Just let it go." What's interesting is people really don't understand or comprehend the depths of the bully's evilness until it's done to them. Then they're shocked. I had people come up to me at work and say, "Bob, we thought that it was just a personality conflict between you and so-and-so but now we understand." And it's very hard for somebody looking from the outside in to try to resolve the situation or totally understand it.
Bob, city engineer1
When abused workers try to describe the pain they suffer at the hands of workplace bullies, listeners are often dubious. Even when we, as researchers who study the phenomenon, talk to professionals, journalists, and other scholars about the issue, people often say things such as "This is the real world, not school, and these people should just toughen up," and "Are you sure they're not just problem employees?" or "Is it really that bad?" As illustrated in the opening quote, employees who are targeted admit that bullying can sound unbelievable. Indeed, Amy, an employee in the sports fishing industry, explained that the bullying at her office was so strange that when new people applied for jobs, "I withheld the truth because the truth seemed surreal. . . . To tell anybody the truth in 15 minutes-they would look at me and say,...