toxic verbal abuse

Piper is being verbally abused by her manager and co-workers and while they can see she is hurting, they don’t care and seem to take pleasure in the toxic situation they are creating for her.

"Words do hurt," says Piper. "Whoever said words don't hurt needs to spend time as a new recruit in a high stress working environment where you're treated as the office kicking dog rather than a valued, educated employee."

"Had I been physically kicked I could have taken the company to court," says Piper, "but emotional kicking is apparently not an offence because words are not supposed to hurt you!"

"I live in dread of losing my job and having to start a new job and going through all the learning curve trauma again," sighs Piper. "It's not the learning curve that fills me with dread but the new people I'll be working with – will they be abusive or helpful?"

"An older girlfriend told me that over time we become immune to verbal assaults at work," says Piper, "but I can't see myself ever getting used to being treated like this."

"What's the use of earning a living when the living you're earning is not worth living?"

"I suppose I could look upon the verbal abusers at work as damaged people – psychopaths or something – but there's no way I can look upon them kindly when I'm living with their verbal abuse for eight hours a day or more, every day of the week."

"Honestly," says Piper, "if work has to be an ordeal then I'd prefer to go home with limbs bleeding from birch lashings than a brain bleeding from tongue lashings."

Read more about Piper’s story:

sticks and stones

childhood flashbacks

education fails workers