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Cyberbullying: A Workplace Virus
David Mathew
University of Bedfordshire, Luton, UK
David.Mathew@beds.ac.uk
Abstract: This paper explores workplace cyberbullying in an education institution in the south of England, in
which declarations of zero tolerance towards bullying masked the reality that it was silently condoned as a means
of controlling staff. As with face-to-face bullying, cyberbullying is a matter of impact and not necessarily of intent;
and here we contemplate the role of the bully and the role of the victim, while viewing an example through a lens
of control theory. The following questions – Is there a need for bullying in the workplace? Does it serve a
function? Does bullying help contain workplace anxiety as well as create it? – are posed. The case of a man in
his mid-thirties, who was systematically bullied by his manager for eighteen months, is presented. Here I
examine the social structures that the bullying enforced (and destroyed) and examine what the subject learned
from the manager's behaviour. In my commentary on this case study I refer to Wilfred Bion's work on workgroup
anxiety. In Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego, Freud explores group formation and the giving up of
individual ideals for the group ideal. I argue that something analogous happens in a workplace environment in
which bullying is rife and in which a scapegoat must be found, even if there is no corresponding misdemeanor for
which he must be punished. I examine the need for homogeneity when it comes to bullying, as well as the issues
of power; transference; the defence against paranoid anxieties; and what happens when a manager is troubled
by others' intelligence. Finally, in the second half of the paper, I extrapolate a future of cyberbullying. The name
of the company in question has been made anonymous and throughout this paper is referred to only as 'the
Institution'. Similarly, the name given to the victim – Rob – has been invented for the sake of anonymity, at his
request.
Keywords: cyberbullying, bullying, anxiety, control
1. The poisoned department
At the end of March 2011, the comedy/satire website The Daily Mash produced a faux-news story
entitled ‘Mob seeks new thing to be angry about’. In this article it emerges that, around the United
Kingdom, enraged people 'may be forced to return to their slightly depressing lives unless they can
find a new cause' to rebel against in a violent manner.'The angry mob,' the story continues, 'who had
been shouting a lot outside a building they believed was the site of a trial but was actually the remains
of a Courts Furniture Superstore, have been enjoying being definitely the goodies for once.'
It is interesting to note this use of for once. Bullies who work in crowds – whether their own tags would
be anarchists, agitators, even protesters – are well aware that they are not 'the goodies' in the eyes of
others: by preying on weaker targets they are clearly in the wrong – again, in the eyes of others –
whatever their original motives. But are they in the wrong in their own eyes? And what implications
does self-awareness, or the lack of it, have for the twenty-first century's development of a bullying
culture, namely the rise of cyberbullying? More specifically still, what implications are there for the
victim and the perpetrator of cyberbullying in the workplace?
It might come as a shock to some people that organisations exist in which cyberbullying is not only
accepted, it is silently encouraged as a tried and tested means of controlling staff. When we think of
industries in which bullying is rife, perhaps we think of industries in which a strict and enforced
hierarchical structure is in place: the Army, for example; the Police Force, the Prison Service, or the
Navy. Whether these perceptions are justified or not, these industries are more likely to be thought of
as places were bullying occurs. However, there are industries in which, for all their proclamations of
fairness for all and zero tolerance towards bullying and harassment, a general air of malice and fear is
not only allowed to exist, but is encouraged. The Institution referred to herein is an example in the
education industry. The workplace operates on a system of strict hierarchy, in which management
and the lower-paid education staff rarely communicate beyond the necessary; in which creative
thinking and inititaitve is firmly suppressed. As John Steiner writes in Seeing and Being Seen (2011):
'A tolerance of difference is necessary for development and for creativity, but difference can also
provoke envy, and it is often when this is attached to injustice that the destructiveness becomes so
magnified' (p.12). It is this triangulation – of envy, injustice and destructiveness – that has raised the
bullying bar to new heights of creative cruelty.
Although cyberbullying is in its infancy, it is growing up fast, and effective techniques are maturing
with it. At places like the Institution, where it is at best ignored and at worst condoned, it pays to keep
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