Then the focus shifts to the new person with a fast-track agenda of elimination. The target suffers, of course, and if that were all it would still be sufficient cause to deal with bullies in the workplace. But others pay too. For instance, the organization in which the bully operates always pays - in lost efficiency, sick time, severance packages and lawyer's bills. The target's family and friends also suffer the fallout from his daily stress and eventual breakdown.
Many marriages suffer or are destroyed under the pressure of the target's anxiety and anger.
Many friendships are cooled when the target, exhibiting the hypervigilance which is typical of a bullied person, goes back obsessively to discussing it. And of course, our medical system pays for putting the damaged persons back together again. In this sense, we all pay for the bully's gratification. Whether the condition is compulsive or not, at the end of the 90's bullying has also been a strategy that rewards the bully. To the dismay of targets and onlookers, they often see a bully receive promotions, protection by their superiors, and fat retirement packages - all this in addition to the apparent satisfaction they draw from abusing one or more of the people around them.