Leaders VS Bullies

2014-11-01T22:07:22-04:00

There is a discussion on Rally Point about Respect, or the lack thereof. I wanted to take that one step further and ask the following question: At what point does Leadership from either Senior Enlisted or Officer cross the line and become bullying behavior? Anyone who has served probably heard the saying, " you don't have to respect the person, but you do have to respect the rank". When I was in I always respected my Superiors because that was my job. However in my final few years in, I have noticed that some of the Senior Enlisted within my units crossed the line and became "legal bullies" because they outranked the "victims" and they knew the Command teams would not stop them.

Response by CW5 Private RallyPoint Member made Nov 1 at 2014 10:51 PM

2014-11-01T22:51:52-04:00

SGT Kevin Smith, I know you read "my story" in the other part of your post, and I read yours. We do have to respect the rank, no doubt. It's sad when a person uses his/her rank to bully a subordinate. In my experience, this often happens when the senior person is wrong about something and the subordinate knows the right answer. It's a tough situation. In my case, I made the mistake of stating my opinion, which set my boss off.

I think the only "answer" with bullies is to involve the chain of command - above the bully - and see if anything can be done. I did that with my situation, but it didn't help. It's a tough predicament. This happened to me after about 35 combined years of active duty and civilian service. You'd think I would know how to handle it, but it came out of left field, I was surprised and didn't know how to respond.