Every week I hear stories of abuse from managers and supervisors who have no experience 'managing' and instead opt to lash out on people they were assigned to train.   Corporate abuse is not a new thing. Bullying in the office by bosses is more common than you would think.  However, sometimes the 'bullying' can be accepted as common practice.  Therefore, new employees tend to be given the message to 'toughen up' and not complain. In the meantime, there are serious emotional and physical byproducts that can occur from this abuse.

So how do you recognize the difference between abuse and just 'learning the ropes.' And what can you do if you discover that your boss is actually a total jerk and bully?

Gary Namie, PhD, director of the Workplace Bullying Institute, says these are the 25 most common tactics adopted by bullies, according to targeted victims:

* Falsely accusing someone of “errors” not actually made.
* Staring, glaring, being nonverbally intimidating and clearly showing hostility.
* Discounting the person’s thoughts or feelings (“oh, that’s silly”) in meetings.
* Using the “silent treatment” to “ice out” and separate from others.
* Exhibiting presumably uncontrollable mood swings in front of the group.
* Making up own rules on the fly that even she/he does not follow.
* Disregarding satisfactory or exemplary quality of completed work despite evidence.
* Harshly and constantly criticizing having a different ‘standard’ for the target.
* Starting, or failing to stop, destructive rumors or gossip about the person.
* Encouraging people to turn against the person being tormented.
* Singling out and isolating one person from co-workers, either socially or physically.
* Publicly displaying “gross,” undignified, but not illegal, behavior.
* Yelling, screaming, and throwing tantrums in front of others to humiliate a person.
* Stealing credit for work done by others.
* Abusing the evaluation process by lying about the person’s performance.
* Rebelling for failing to follow arbitrary commands.
* Using confidential information about a person to humiliate privately or publicly.
* Retaliating against the person after a complaint was filed.
* Making verbal put-downs/insults based on gender, race, accent or language, disability.
* Assigning undesirable work as punishment.
* Making undoable demands– workload, deadlines, duties — for person singled out.
* Launching a baseless campaign to oust the person.
* Encouraging the person to quit or transfer rather than to face more mistreatment.
* Sabotaging the person’s contribution to a team goal and reward.
* Ensuring failure of person’s project by not performing required tasks: signoffs, taking calls, working with collaborators.

In addition, Namie says confronting the boss is “rarely effective and ill-advised.” A few years ago, WBI asked 1,598 individuals who were personally familiar with workplace bullying what strategies they adopted to get their bullying to stop, and whether those actions were effective. Here’s what they said:

* About 38% of bullied employees essentially did nothing. In other words, he or she let time pass, hoping matters would improve on their own. Effectiveness of doing nothing: 3.25%
* About 70% of employees directly confronted the perpetrator. Effectiveness of confronting: 3.57%
* About 71% of bullied employees asked the perpetrator’s boss to intervene and stop it. Effectiveness of seeking support from bully’s boss: 3.26%
* About 74% told senior management/owner, expecting support.Effectiveness of seeking support from senior management/owners: 3.69%