Working in the area of Human Resources, there were several times that I would hear about a manager's behavior towards individuals that seemed totally inappropriate, disrespectful and, at times, even cruel.

The problem was that when you would investigate the claims of the employee, co-workers were reluctant to say anything against their manager for fear that they would then be the next target. When the manager was confronted with the employee's allegations, the manager would claim that the real problem was the employee and their poor work performance.

To add further frustration, for the employee and the Human Resource representative, when they would share the employee's claims of mistreatment with higher management, it would often fall on deaf ears. Management often refused to believe the employee and would continue to support the manager.

Without management support, the human resource representative was forced to counsel the employee to leave the situation. The only help provided was a referral to Employee Advisory Services and assistance with a transfer out of that unit -- leaving the employee feeling unsupported, alienated and victimized.

Unlike sexual harassment or racial discrimination, there has been no law against the behavior, and no policy prohibiting it in most workplaces. That is why this bill is so important to state and private-sector employees.

So what is workplace bullying? According to Gary and Ruth Namie, authors of "The Bully at Work," bullying is "the repeated, malicious, health-endangering mistreatment of one employee (the target) by one or more employees (the bully, bullies). The mistreatment is psychological violence, a mix of verbal and strategic assaults to prevent the target from performing well. It is illegitimate conduct in that it prevents work getting done. Thus an employer's legitimate business interests are not met."

According to House Bill 1968, "workplace bullying is conduct that: (a) a reasonable person would find hostile or offensive and unrelated to an employer's legitimate business interests; and (b) causes physical or psychological harm to the employee."

Also according to the bill, workplace bullying includes but is not limited to:

Some of you may be looking at this list and be wondering why on earth would anyone put up with such behavior. The problem is that 81 percent of workplace bullies are bosses. Unless you have adequate income from another job or source, it makes it very difficult to stand up to your boss or complain to a higher manager without fear that your job is in jeopardy. The other problem is that since part of the manipulation is to undermine your self-worth, outsiders looking in may think that you are the problem.

According to research by the Workplace Bullying and Trauma Institute (WBTI), the top 10 bullying tactics include:

(WBTI note: HB 1968 passed the Committee on Commerce and Labor, but failed to pass the House Appropriations Committee in 2005; the bill died)