For the person being targeted
You’re not imagining it.
If you dread walking in. If you’ve started doubting your own memory. If no one around you seems to see what’s happening to you — you are not too sensitive, and you are not alone.
Does any of this sound familiar?
You know something is wrong. You just can’t always prove it.
- The knot in your stomach before work that never quite goes away.
- Being talked over, left out, or set up to fail — then told you’re overreacting.
- Shifting stories and quiet exclusions that are impossible to point to, but impossible to ignore.
- Going to HR and somehow walking away feeling like you are the problem.
- Lying awake replaying conversations, wondering if it’s all in your head.
It isn’t in your head. What you’re describing has a name.
Workplace bullying is real, it is documented, and it is one of the most damaging forms of harm adults endure — precisely because it hides in plain sight.
It’s rarely one dramatic event. It’s the accumulation: the undermining, the isolation, the gaslighting that slowly leaves you doubting your own competence and memory. And too often, the people who should help — HR, leadership, the colleagues who saw it happen — protect the institution instead of the person being harmed. That betrayal can wound as deeply as the bullying itself.
What is being done to you is not your fault.
Light dawns.
Seeing your situation clearly is the first step out of the dark. You can understand exactly what’s happening to you — and you don’t have to face it alone.
Start here
In Darkness Light Dawns
Exposing Workplace Bullying
Written for exactly the place you may be standing in right now. It names what is happening to you, shows you how workplace bullying actually operates, and helps you stop questioning yourself and start seeing clearly. The first, simplest step toward getting your footing back.
Get the book →When you need someone in your corner
If you’re ready for direct support — someone who understands what you’re up against and can help you think through your next move — you can reach me.
Reach Dr. Barrow →Why you can trust this
You’re not getting advice from a stranger.
Dr. Lisa M.S. Barrow has spent more than twenty years studying and confronting workplace bullying — as a consultant, a professor, and a Health & Safety Officer who has led harassment, bullying, and discrimination investigations firsthand.
She holds a Doctor of Management and a Master of Human Resources & Employment Law, is the author of three books on workplace bullying, and has appeared on CNN International, CBC The National, and Voice of America. The credentials matter for one reason: so that when she tells you what you’re experiencing is real, you can believe it.