Bullies

The following are excerpts from an excellent site
(www.bullyonline.com) with information on how to
spot an individual with a tendency to bully, as well
as an organization with a bent towards bullying
(a prime example of how the already-toxic AA
can be further corrupted by virtue of an especially
bad apple in the barrel.)

Those that are loudest and unflinching have far more
impact and influence than those that are kind and loving.

Note how the aspects relate to the specific problems
of AA and what it seeks to do to people who attend.

Characteristics of an individual who bullies:

·  is a control freak and has a compulsive need to control
everyone and everything you say, do, think and believe; for
example, will launch an immediate personal attack attempting
to restrict what you are permitted to say if you start talking
knowledgeably about psychopathic personality or antisocial
personality disorder in their presence -- but aggressively
maintains the right to talk (usually unknowledgeably) about
anything they choose. Serial bullies despise anyone who enables
others to see through their deception and their mask of sanity

·  displays a compulsive need to criticise whilst simultaneously
refusing to value, praise and acknowledge others, their achieve-
ments, or their existence

·  is also quick to belittle, undermine, denigrate and discredit
anyone who calls, attempts to call, or might call the bully to account

·  gains gratification from denying people what they are entitled
to when called upon to share or address the needs and concerns of
others, responds with impatience, irritability and aggression

http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/serial.htm

Most organisations have a serial bully. It never ceases
to amaze me how one person's divisive, disordered,
dysfunctional behaviour can permeate the entire
organisation like a cancer." Tim Field

There are dynamics related to the art of bullying and
how it effects any group 'normal' behavior. The author
promotes that targets of workplace bullying are not a
random selection, but rather specifically chosen individuals
who refuse the 'company' norms (the unique and
unconscious rules of a work system.)

"Abusive work systems often mimic dysfunctional families,
and employees adopt similar behaviors at work that they
maintained in their own families. If their personal behavior
patterns are far different from the norms," Hare says, "then
these are the people that get picked on the most. The people
who have their own ideas and speak out, they can be pretty
severely abused."

http://www.bullyonline.org/workbully/workabus.htm