ABSTRACT
Workplace bullying covers a multitude of sins. Virtually any negative, uncivil encounter can be and is defined as bullying. Bullying encompasses vandalism, gestures, withholding of important information, and making faces—even "smiling the wrong way". This chapter explores why and how workplace bullying has been transformed into a major social problem in the United Kingdom. The British public first heard of bullying in 1991. Andrea Adams, who is generally recognized as the pioneering crusader of this issue, succeeded in producing two BBC radio programs on workplace bullying and in placing a few articles in the British press. As a skilled journalist, she was able to link the problem to the existing widespread public concern with the bullying of children in school. Workplace bullying provided a new focus for raising the problem of stress. The adoption of workplace bullying as a cause by a section of the British trade union movement led to its transformation into a widely recognized social problem.
