By every measure, Megan is a high performer.

Recruited five years ago into a

company that delivers large-scale training programs, she proved herself to her
employers on a series of complex projects as both a trainer and a project manager.
She liked her job and the people she worked with. "It felt like a big family," she says.

The pace was fast and the work demanding, but Megan performed well. Four years
after joining the organization, she was promoted. "Along with the increase in
responsibility came huge stress, but I was willing to take that on because it was a
team environment - a supportive, inclusive team."

Unfortunately, her promotion coincided with other stressors, including personal

trauma and physical illness. She began to experience insomnia, agitation and
headaches. "I was breaking down, I couldn't get out of bed. The whole team was
moved into a cubical environment and the noise levels went through the roof, which
was a major stressor. I was having many panic attacks a day, so I would have to try
to find a place to be alone at work so no one would notice."

Her doctor eventually diagnosed her with depression and anxiety, and prescribed
medication, but her symptoms persisted and Megan's co-workers began to notice
the change. "As I became more and more ill, I could no longer maintain the joviality
around the office. I had a tremendous amount of responsibility and it seemed to me
that I was the only one taking the work seriously. They called me 'anal' but I just
wanted to do the work well. I tried to laugh along with it, but eventually I couldn't."

Although Megan told several of her colleagues that she was experiencing severe
depression, no one seemed concerned about her health. "The reaction was blas. I
said 'I'm depressed, I'm on medication' and the response was 'Oh, everyone's on
medication.'"

Megan's behaviour continued to change and her workplace relationships continued

to deteriorate, but no one seemed to believe that mental illness was the cause.
Conversations would stop when she came into the office, she was not invited to
meetings she normally had been included in, information essential to her job
performance was withheld and some of her colleagues became angry that she was
bringing down the 'happy family.' "Somebody actually said to me 'For God's sake,
you look miserable.' She was angry with me. And I said 'Yes, I am - I can't cope.' And
the response was 'Get over it, we're all stressed.'"

Megan eventually took eight weeks of sick leave and missed a very busy period at
work. When she returned, she faced daily expressions of resentment from her
colleagues, although a replacement had been found to carry her workload.
Eventually, her situation became unbearable. "By the end of my stay there, my
manager had not spoken to me directly in over a year and her office was only six
feet away from mine. She would talk about me so I could overhear. At one point I
said 'I'm sitting right here,' but she didn't stop." Eventually, Megan could take no
more and sought and found a position at a new company.

The difference between the work demands at the two places was not significant.
Megan still had high expectations placed on her and was required to work to tight
deadlines. What had changed was that the new work environment understood
Megan's condition and decided that the value she added as a creative and engaged
employee was worth the time it took to accommodate her mental health issues.
Very minor changes to the environment and to communication were all it took to
allow Megan to slowly regain her health and maintain her abilities.

Megan's story is a prime example of workplace 'mobbing' - ongoing, systematic and

often unintentional bullying of an individual by his or her colleagues. Some
examples of mobbing can be very overt, taking the form of rudeness and physical
intimidation. But often, it is much more subtle, involving social ostracism and
exclusion. In fact, each individual incident may seem inconsequential, but over a
period of time, mobbing erodes the self-confidence and self-esteem of the mobbed
employee.

Mary Ann Baynton, the Director of Mental Health Works, an initiative of the
Canadian Mental Health Association, Ontario, stresses that it is not just the victim
that is harmed by mobbing; the workplace also pays a price in a loss of loyalty and
performance from the mobbed employee. Some research has demonstrated that
the victims of mobbing waste up to 52% of their time at work in defending
themselves and networking for support, thinking about the situation and being
demotivated and stressed. She says, "Although few organizations recognize the
problem, it's imperative to every business's bottom line that they protect their
employees from mobbing."

Whether intentionally or unintentionally, many co-workers participate or are

complicit in mobbing, succumbing to peer pressure that we more frequently

associate with children and teens. And despite the fact that mobbing is far more
prevalent than other destructive behaviors such as sexual harassment and racial
discrimination, which are prohibited by legislation, in Canada only the province of
Quebec has legislation to protect workers against mobbing.