It seems to me that every few months, a flurry of news reports and research articles appear describing office and workplace bullying. In the popular press, these articles usually serve a descriptive function to inform those individuals who have never heard of such a phenomenon what it is. Of course, anyone who has been a target of a bully or witnessed a bullying encounter can easily describe to you the feelings. In one of my favorite research articles, Nightmares, Demons, and Slaves: Exploring the Painful Metaphors of Workplace Bullying, Sarah Tracy, Pamela Lutgen-Sandvik, and Jess Alberts discovered that victims of workplace bullying typically think of themselves in terms such as “vulnerable children,” “slaves,” or “prisoners.” It is in these narrative accounts, that we really understand some of the psychological impacts of workplace bullying. However, many people still wonder what sort of physiological effect being a target or witnessing bullying might have on individuals.

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