This post is a response to a question posed in its complete format: “How common is it to be bullied at work, especially for new staff by pre -existing staff? Which work environments are the most typical where this happens?”

Bullying is so prevalent within society that most of it goes unnoticed.

Much of it is supported by society at large. For example, it is a common refrain for the older generations to complain about the younger generations. It is so common that it’s almost like a tradition passed on from generation to generation.

Few stop to think of that behaviour as a form of bullying, but that is the context in which it should be widely viewed.

The most cited reason for leaving a place of employment is “bad management,” which is often a euphemism for a bullying environment.

I was once exposed to an office culture where the fear that permeated the environment was so thick I could almost taste it in the air. I hated that place and was extremely relieved when I finished it.

Bullying happens everywhere and in every form of work environment. It’s not a “class thing” but an education thing we don’t have a good handle on dealing with in society.

I think the reason why we can’t get a handle on bullying is because it is so prevalent and so unique in the many forms it’s expressed.

For example, in a “low-education environment,” bullying can quickly escalate into physical violence. In contrast, in “high-education environments,” bullying occurs most often through dialectics and political maneuvering, like getting people fired or punished in varying ways.

Bullying is the primary reason why I support a universal basic income.

Bullying is an employer who leverages the duress of basic survival against a defenceless candidate whose choice is reduced to being between a handful of peanuts or a cold night outside.

The inability to walk away from an abusive employer is already a form of bullying that this society, in which we have no choice but to participate within its dysfunctional parameters, imposes upon the majority to produce value for the minority to engorge themselves on.

Bullying is a dysfunctional family, and since that comprises a whopping majority (70%-80%) in society, that further adds to the complications bullying creates because we are conditioning our children, each succeeding generation, that we do and will tolerate bullying in society. We only give lip service to wanting to deal with a problem we try to write off as an unalterable reality and a fundamental characteristic of humanity… or so the bullies among us would have us all believe.

A universal income floor empowers every human being to walk away from the bullies in their lives. We have worked for centuries to build that kind of freedom for humanity.

It’s right here and ready for us to grab it.

We’ve earned it while humanity desperately needs it to face many problems we’ve been struggling with for a long time.