The workplace bully: The ultimate silencer

In an effort to add to our understanding of workplace bullying, this paper seeks to explore the rhetorical strategies employed by bullies and the communicative strategies targets employ in response. Thirty-one (31) working women with at least a bachelor's degree between the ages of 25 and 62 (M = 38) were interviewed to discuss their workplace experiences, and particularly interactions with supervisors. As such, three themes emerged from this paper, including Communication is Silenced, which emerged as the women discussed how their supervisors sought to silence them. The second and third themes, Hedging Phrases and Communication is Shutdown, emerged as descriptions of how the women rhetorically responded to the bullies' attacks. Overall, the women shared that beyond leaving the organization, the use of limited rhetorical tactics were their only hope for minimizing the mistreatment.