Walk Away to Win: A Playbook to Combat Workplace Bullying

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What Bullying Isn’t

I’m very gentle and really sweet, and if you f*ck with me, I’ll mop the floor with you.

—CHER

“CRRRRRUNCH.”

I heard the sound, but I didn’t know where it was coming from. I continued. I was in the zone.

“CRRRRRUNCH.”

There it was again. I was doing my best to make eye contact with the six sets of eyes staring at me from around the large conference table, as I balanced a running shoe on my left hand, which I had formed into a kind of tripod.

To have gotten to this point, I had graduated from the University of Oregon, landed and promptly quit a “marketing” job handing out kielbasa at a supermarket, worked for a year as a customer service rep at Nike’s distribution center in Wilsonville, Oregon, and beaten out hundreds of ...