h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I started working at 17.
I took any job that was on offer.
The bullying was extreme.
I tried every method i could think of to prevent this but none seemed to work.
Eventually i hit on a strategy which wasnt in any book but it worked.
If it was without physical force, it was just ignored. Sticks and stones, you can walk away. Sure eventually you might have to walk away from the job, but thats not much.
If it involved physical force then 2 warnings, with an exact description of what would follow, then a last warning.
I used judo - the point was that you have a right to exist without fear or harassment. If it is applied to you then you have a right to defend yourself. In any way you can.
The most important thing to understand is that if you are being physically tormented then your tormentor will be bigger and stronger than you, so what you do must be in such a way that he cannot get up and back at you, because you will suffer.
One firm tried to have me arrested for grevious bodily harm, but surprisingly enough the perpetrator stood up for me, and i guess, so had i.
This was in the 70s, i understand the workplace in the uk has grown up a little since then.
I gave up working for others completely in the 80s and have worked for myself ever since.
Occasionally i meet a bullying client. If the bullying is about the work then i feel i might learn something,(and often i do) particularly if it is not personal. The minute it becomes that i walk.
Bullying involves complex personal and interpersonal issues, but at the end of the day its a very simple matter.
The Gordian knot problem was easily solved.