Judith Munson

Judith Munson

Peacefulness and pleasant surroundings are important to me.

The theme that I chose for this website was done on purpose… Not necessarily for the colors, but for the simplistic design, ease of reading, and how the basic nature of my own life-force is reflected in it.

Not all of the paths we take in our lives lead us to where we think we should be, but they do ultimately have a higher and more important purpose than what we may think they do.

What I write for others to read is altogether different from peaceful or pleasant. Workplace bullying, intimidation, and verbal abuse are subjects that are painful – not only to read about, but especially to experience.

The book I have authored have one purpose, to bring about solutions and healing for people who have been bullied, whether in their workplace, place of worship, or non-profit organizations.

These intimidating behaviors have most likely caused such  turmoil in their lives that for some, it takes years to recover and come back from the trauma.

We all see on the news the devastating results of schoolyard bullying and how it affects the children whom are targeted by the bully.

The same things are happening in our workplaces; yet they are mostly unreported by the media and almost always overlooked by management.

Having been there and suffered the consequences of a workplace bully, and the mob that she controlled, my entire life was changed and now I am the one that is fighting these dreadful, debilitating circumstances.

Let me tell you more of my own personal story so you will see why the subject of workplace bullying, intimidation, and abuse is such a passionate one of mine.

A number of years ago when I was in my 30′s, I was married with two children in school and working full time at a large hospital. Everyone I worked with there said I was doing a great job and enjoyed having me as a co-worker.

One day as I was working, I felt faint and weak and almost collapsed right there at my desk. They walked me right down to the emergency room to get checked out and found that I was having a problem with my heart. They scheduled me to see the cardiologist and have an angiogram done.

To make a long story short, they discovered that my mitral valve was bad so I underwent open heart surgery to get it repaired. My supervisors assured me that my job would be waiting for me when I returned which made me feel really wanted and comfortable there.

After a normal recovery I did resume work in the same position I was before. Shortly after going back to a normal routine my supervisor called me into her office and told me that I had made a few mistakes in the paperwork and inputting that I was responsible for.

This escalated to where I was being called into her office almost every day for things that I was allegedly doing wrong, and to the point that I thought I was going to have a mental breakdown over all the “incorrect work” they were claiming I was doing. Here’s the thing though, by then I knew I was doing things the right way because I was double checking them.

The other thing that was kind of confusing to me was my co-workers that had been really nice and always friendly before my surgery were basically ignoring me now and would go as far as to outright avoid me when I came around. I couldn’t, for the life of me, figure out what I had done that was so wrong. It seemed as though my whole working life was turned upside down.

Well, after three months of being called to the supervisors office and reprimanded for things that I allegedly did wrong, she gave me the ultimatum of either going back on 90 days probation or I could just go ahead and leave right then.

By then I was actually seeing a psychologist thinking that there was something seriously wrong with me. Little did I know that the work I was doing was being undone and changed after my shift had ended so that they would have ammunition to bring against me with the ultimate goal of getting rid of me either through termination (during the 90 day probation) or through my own resignation.

My immediate supervisor and a few others that she had complete control of were mobbing me. She would tell them to mess my work up and they would take care of it for her. Then the next day I was called on the carpet to try and explain the mistakes I supposedly made.

I did resign right then and there. Walking out in tears, not understanding what was wrong with me or why this was all happening when I was almost positive that my work was up to their standards and done correctly every day. I thought I had mentally “lost it”!

The emotional and physical pain of this workplace mobbing caused so much stress in my life that I wasn’t able to leave home or go out in public alone for 7 long years. I had to have professional counseling for most of that time as well.

After I was gone for a year I did learn through a trusted inside source that the whole thing was a setup to terminate me because after my open heart surgery, I was considered to be too much of a health risk to remain employed there any longer. They wanted me gone and were willing to do whatever it took to make that happen.