Dear cherryblossom:

So you experienced bullying by your co workers. You approached HR to resolve it. As a result of that, your manager was harmed. You didn’t intend to harm him, but you made a mistake: you bypassed him.

Looking back, you realize (do you?) that contacting your direct manager was the right way to go about the workplace bullying, even if that contact was via a chat line.

You mentioned before that you betrayed your co workers. I don’t see your act as a betrayal of them; after all they bullied you. The miscalculation on your part was going to a level above your manager and stating there that your manager was not present in the workplace.

The other mistake is not asserting yourself with the bullying co workers. That would have been best- take care of business with the offenders directly so to avoid reaching out to another party to solve the problem.

This is my best understanding at this point. I sure hope I got it.

anita