We eventually found the courage at the end to lodge an official complaint. Although on the surface the complaint was acknowledged, no-one has ever acknowledged the distress we were caused or apologised to us. The bully herself was never obliged to make any redress or apology. She is now moving to another department who have no idea about her problem. She was given no warning on file for bullying, but has emerged unscathed.
Workplace bullying is on the increase and many employers fail to take the matter seriously enough.
In fact, I would argue that many organisations actually promote bullying through their tolerance of it. The problem is that the very word 'bully' conjures up images of playgrounds and school-children so, unless you know what it is like to be bullied as an adult, it is easy to dismiss it as childish behaviour. But bullying is a serious problem. According to one British survey, a quarter of adult workers have been subjected to bullying at some point in their working lives and some forty million working days are thought to be lost each year in Britain due to the effects of bullying in the workplace. Employers really should take it more seriously - not just for moral reasons, but because of the cost to them.