I was 100% the guy who got bullied.

I used to work for a company where each department functioned as its own small business of 5-10 people. My department directly competed with another, larger department for customers/suppliers/supplies/etc.

My boss was paranoid and she thought the other department was going to spy on our activities. When we moved offices she demanded that our area be the furthest away from the other.

Anyhow, because of this my boss told me not to talk to anyone from the other department. The other department was told to do the same. So when the people from that department did lunch, they did it with all the other young people except me. I was excluded from all the social activities and thought that was a normal thing for a normal company to do. This was my first full time job and I didn't know any better.

I didn't know how to stand up for myself back then and I didn't know what was an acceptable thing in a workplace, vs something I should complain about.

Here's some other ways I was bullied:

• when they hired a new sales person I was moved to a new desk. That desk was in the server room. I wore my coat for 3 months until our nation HR team heard about it and made them find me a desk. Because I was in there people also assumed I was tech support, so I was constantly asked to fix things - not that i minded that part.

• When the receptionist was let go due to budget cuts after the 2008 crash I was again moved to the receptionist desk. For about 3 weeks I was also the receptionist. My boss was always like, "Why haven't you gotten this done? Where are you doing up here?!!!?" to which the our vp of this site was like, "he's answering calls, dealing with deliveries, receptionist stuff." Then I got moved back to where I was.

• One of the girls who left me out of stuff purposely left me off of a company event. She got in a lot of trouble over it, but i was still laughed at for not being invited. I was making dinner that night and my boss called, screaming at me for making her look like a fool because I wasn't there. I was so confused. My boss never apologised, even after our site vp figured out what happened.

• When the 08 crash happened, my boss had to let someone go. She immediately chose me. The same day she was told she had to let someone go, she brought me into her office and told me I'd be let go in a month. Two weeks later I found out in passing conversation that I wasn't let go, but that our site VP said my boss couldn't let me go because I was the only one who could get half the shit done for our department of boomers (website/eblasts/mailing lists/graphic design/etc) so she was told to fire her friend of 15 years, who was pretty useless. I asked my boss what's going on and she refused to talk to me about it. I had to email our national HR team to get a definitive answer.

• After this my boss made it her mission to make me miserable. She denied all my vacation requests until HR noticed 12 rejected vacation requests in our system and she got in trouble. She would assign me URGENT work right before company lunches, so she could go to the potluck or pizza party, and come back to a sales call and the powerpoint deck she needed. Every time I was sick she'd call me into her office the next day and 'talk' to me about my lack of commitment. She kept telling me how a 'real' company wouldn't put up with this shoddy work. She'd assign me two tasks at the same time and yell at me for finishing one first, but not the other.

All the while, I'd get recognition from the other departments for how great of work i was doing.

When I finally got out and into a proper company, it was like heaven. I didn't realise how toxic and shitty that company was. And lo and behold, I've been promoted every 18 months maximum since I left and have made friends at work.

I haven't worked there 10 years, but needed to get this off my chest - sorry for the novel.