Being Rejected and Expelled from the Workplace: Experiences of Bullying in the Public Service Sector

Abstract

The aim was to describe how bullying was experienced by individuals who had been exposed to bullying at their workplaces. Open interviews were conducted with 22 participants from different professional and organizational status groups in the public service sector, who had experienced bullying at their workplaces. The interviews were analyzed according to guidelines for grounded theory. The core category illuminated a social process of “being rejected and expelled from the workplace.” Based on the informants´ descriptions, the meaning of bullying seemed to be conflict resolution through rejection of a threatening workmate. Additional categories described assumed intentions of indirect aggressive behaviors; “changing a person's image by means of slander,” “betraying a person through deceit,” “devaluing a person through insults,” and “legitimizing bullying through unjust treatment.” The category “mobilizing power through support” showed that the informants perceived temporary relief from suffering through support from others. Often support from those other than family and close friends was sparse. All categories formed a conceptual model describing a process of workplace bullying, as experienced and described by the informants. A conceptual model is proposed to illustrate a social process of rejection and expulsion from the workplace, based on interview data from informants who have experiences of bullying at the workplace. Bullying seemed to hold meaning in that it was perceived by the informants to solve values conflicts in the workplace.

Keywords:

• bullying
• harassment
• workplace
• rejection
• grounded theory