Hi Free Moon,

I know, I also think it’s a massive lack of awareness as well. It’s weird, because she is so in to her food and nutrition, and yet does not care about how her behaviour has an effect on others. I definitely will! Hopefully I’ll only be there for one month, as I hope to get a new job. But I wanted to go back and finish the job properly, as I’ve been there for 5 years. I also thought it would suck not being able to say goodbye to the people we support, who are so lovely.

Yes, it does – and I think it’s very character building and good confidence test to stand up to bullies. Best way to do it? Keep your cool, and when she’s being funny, just ask her questions. “So Barbz, how come you’re speaking Cantonese now?”, “So Barbz, you seem a bit miffed, whats up?” – and put her on the spot a bit. “Is something wrong? You seem off” etc etc. Best thing is to confront the behaviour rather than letting the passiveness remain passive, because that’s how they get away with it.

My workplace situation was really bad. Because I’m the youngest I wasn’t being listened to. I wrote a personal letter to the manager, and then he gave it to the Senior when he was on holiday to deal with, even though he knew how much problems I’d had with her. And the senior then made passive comments about it to another member of staff in front of me, so I said I wasn’t putting up with it anymore, and I left the building – and went and complained to my managers manager.

Now – HR have said I need to have meetings with the senior, and manager etc. But its taken months and hasn’t happened yet. Not sure what I want to do when I go back. I blocked all my colleagues on FB and IG, as I’ve been off past 2 months and needed a break. I’m going to ask my manager to ask my colleagues to not talk to me about my personal life, or ask me personal questions about my name change or why I was off etc. And to say I just want a fresh start.

Cat