Oral Practice

A workplace bully

Elizabeth works for a computer company. At first, she liked the job and believed that she could do it well. But now she has a problem:Her team leader,Valma, is a bully. Valma seems to dislike Elizabeth. She always finds problems with her work. If Elizabeth makes a small mistake, she shouts at her in front of her colleagues: “What's wrong with you? Are you stupid?” She doesn't talk to the other team members in this way. She gives Elizabeth all the most boring and difficult tsks to do. Elizabeth wants to go on a training course. She wants to specialise and be able to do more interesting work. But Valma always finads a reason to stop her. She tells Elizabeth she has no ability. Elizabeth feels tired and stressed. She is starting to believe that she really is stupid. What should Elizabethdo?

She has four options:

·talk to her colleagues about it

·talk to Valma herself

·report the bullying to a senior manager in the company

·leave the job

Task 1

To find a good solution, it is helpful to understand why someone is a bully. There are three main types of bullies. Read about one of these types. Work in three groups. Group A turn to page 111. Group B turn to page 112. Group C turn to page 113.

Task 2

Form new groups of three,with one person from Groups A, B and C respectively. Take turns to describe one type of bully to your partners. Which description do you think best matches Valma? Using the information about this type of bully, decide on the best option for Elizabeth. Of course, she can try more than one option. But which one is not such a good solution?Why?