Hello Lisa, I wish I could shake your hand, but at least I can congratulate you on being certified recently as a spokesperson for the Workplace Bullying Institute, and of course, for taking on this MONSTER task.

You know I am a psychotherapist, but I am also a Life, Business and Executive Coach, and a Supervisor of Therapists and also in the corporate world for over 10 years. I tell you this, not because I am showing off, but to explain the following.

At this very moment I am dealing with a a narcissists serial bully in a Government run set-up where there are 5 members of staff in one particular office. There has been ongoing problems with this narcissistic lady going back about 8 years now.

Because I am supervisor for all of the staff, I heard all of the running complaints and coached them accordingly. About three years ago it got to a desperate place where I suggested the need for "mediation"....everybody agreed, except her.....so she controlled everybody by refusing to attend.

Just about that time she admitted (in one of her grandiose moments)to behaving unethical in the workplace (an act against the co-coordinator in charge). Naturally I had to challenge her behaviour (as respectfully as I could). Can you guess what happened next..... in effect she sacked me, saying she did not need or want supervision any more.....no surprise. However I continued to supervise the other four in the office as normal.

Over the years, 3 staff members left after being terrorize by her into leaving the job. None of them felt that they could justify a formal complaint to the Board of Management, but 2 of the people experienced a breakdown before getting out. The third person (a young man) just walked out after only a month or two, saying that he could not put up with that behaviour....then disappeared.

Over the years I suggested making a formal complaint in writing to the Board of Management about the bullying, but everybody was hesitant to do so, fearing the Board (who are all volunteers) would do nothing, and then they would risk reprisals from the narcissist staff member. In short, they were all afraid of her.

It was terrible to watch what was happening, of course there would be good spells pepper into the mix, where she would be kind and "nice", giving everybody a false confidence that things had changed. She was controlling then with her mood swings, and they were grateful when there was any sign of respite.

So in the meantime, working in a "War Zone", all I could do was to instructed them in skills of survival to protect themselves. I also suggested that they each keep a detailed account of events in case they decide to make a complaint later.

For 3 years the Board of Management were notified of the problem, members of the staff asked for there help several times, they hoped that even a formal reprimand would make her toe the line. But the Board choose to ignore them. I know that they were afraid that she (the narcissist) would bring the Union down on their heads, and say she was being bullied by them. They were not a bit afraid of the other members of staff, because, as you say, they are all competent, professional, likable, ethical and honest people. Everything the other staff bully is not.

As part of my role as supervisor I had a Duty of Care to the staff and the Company, and I did not feel that I could stand by and collude in this behaviour any longer. I explained to everybody that I had a Duty of Care, not just to them, but also the Board of Management, and that I was being compromised professionally with the situation. Fair play to them, they signed a consent form giving them permission to notify the Board. I sent a letter of notification of the situation that existed in the office to the Board of Management in January 2011.

In that letter I spoke as Supervisors of the Company.
I spoke of the following:-
* As supervisor to the staff, I felt that I had a responsibility to inform the Board of Management of my concerns regarding the harassment by one person towards the other members of staff, of which I knew they were aware of for some time.
* That the harassment has been on-going on for years now, and it has created a toxic environment within the office.
* It was effecting the stress levels and morale of every member of staff, which would effect performance.
* That in my opinion, if this situation is ignored for any longer, that it highly likely that more staff will leave (already at least three administrators have left because of this person’s behaviour).
*It was likely that the office would experience high absenteeism in the near future due to high levels of stress anxiety.
*That I understood that oral complaints had already been expressed to the Board regarding the constant conflict by this one person.
* That as far back as three years ago I suggested the need for mediation to resolve the office problems, but this was declined by a member of staff (meaning the narcissist).
* I said that I believed that the situation had now reached intolerable levels where something must be done.
* And I suggested that all parties of the Board of Management consider initiating a prompt investigation to be carried out by an outside agency in order to find a solution to this intolerable situation for everybody's sake.
* Finally, I requested that they acknowledge receipt of my letter.

Nothing happened, and the Board of Management did not acknowledge my letter.
* When I asked the Co-Ordinator to check if they had made the acknowledgement, it was clear that they had not. They then asked the Co-Ordinator to write to me acknowledging receipt of the letter.
* The outcome: Nobody on the Board of Management contacted me or took responsibility for answering my letter. Worse than that, they showed no Duty of Care towords any member of staff.

Things continued to deteriorate throughout the year, and I instructed each member of staff that they needed to make a formal letter of complaint of bullying, but they were still afraid.

In September 2011 the Co-Ordinator was the first to go down sick. However, against my advice, she returned back to work in December because she felt so guilty about the other staff members. Within a few days she was back to panic attacking, as I had predicted. After the Christmas break (against my advice she returned back to work again). Within a week she suffered a major breakdown and I had to get her to a hospital on a Sunday morning following an emergency call from her demented husband. The doctor in the hospital spoke with me, and decided to inject her with a heavy dose of medication to stablize her anxiety. Since then she has been through a terrible time, now under the care of a psychiatrist, on medication (anti-depressants and sleeping pills), and about to attend a day care centre on his instruction in order to normalize her back into some form of routine and rehabilitation.

In December 2011 the second lady went down, medicated by her doctor and put on sick leave. Again she went back into the office in January 2012 (against my advice because she too was feeling guilty about the other staff members). Unfortunately, another attack of bullying completely broke her. But this is when things changed. She actually wrote a formal letter of complaint against the narcissist to the Board of Management, listing a catalogue of events that she had on record (as instructed to do by me).

Naturally I knew that the Board of Management would have to inform the recipient (narcissist) that a formal complaint had been issued against her by that particular person. We were both expecting that to happen, I had prepared her for that. But what I was not expecting was that they also furnished the respondent with a copy of the actual list of complaints. Once that happened, the complainant was so full of fear about her safety, that she could not return to the office. She then fell apart, a total mess, all confidence gone etc. etc.

In February the third person broke down, the hospital Doctor (where she was been treated for high levels of blood pressure) advised her not to go into the toxic environment as her health was compromised with a blood pressure level that was dangerous.

So now there are only the narcissist and the male member of staff holding the fort. I know that she is happy in conflict, and loving the attention this is bringing her. She is ringing other offices (there are 35 different offices to this organization, and I am supervisor in 5 different offices, so I hear things back, often without people knowing what they are telling me). I know that she is spreading the rumors that she is being bullied etc. She is also tearing the reputations of each member of staff apart, as I knew she would.

Finally the Board of Management took some action (some 14 months after I notified them of the seriousness of the situation). They have done as I suggested, and they have engaged an independent external agency to carry out an investigation.

I think they realize that they are likely to have a case of Constructive Dismissal being brought against the organization. I know they will be most afraid of the narcissist, because true to form, she has gone to 3 members of the Union engaging them so that there is nobody left to represent the other one staff member who is also a member of the Workers Union, the Co-ordinator. This happened once before, and the Union said, due to a conflict of interest, they would have to appoint someone outside the Union to represent her. It was a farce really, the narcissist totally controlled and manipulated everybody, but they did not see that of course.

Getting back to the lady who made the complaint. I advised her that this may be the time to engage a solicitor to represent her case, but she and her husband made a decision not to do so at that point.

She actually had her interview with an Investigator last Tuesday, with her husband attending as her witness. By Thursday the Investigator very professionally furnished her with a Report of what had taken place at the interview. He has now asked her to make any amendments to her statement if there are any errors, then it can be signed off so that the process can go to the next step of process.

The next step in the process is to notify the respondent (narcissist)of a date for her interview. She has 10 days to reply to that request. When (and if) she attends the interview, she can bring her witnesses with her. She has named a member of the Workers Union (Top Gun of course) and a solicitor as her witnesses.

After that happens, the Interviewer then interviews the complaints witnesses. She has choosed two members of staff as her witness to events. She has chosen the Co-Ordinator, and the male member of staff. The other person they are a bit afraid of(the lady with the high blood pressure) because she was the narcissists Source of Supply in the office throughout all this time. They are afraid that she would buckle under the strain, or worse still, inform the respondent (narcissist) what has taken placeis happening in order to stay safe. I think the main reason this 3rd lady is out of work (as well as her blood pressure) is that she cannot handle the rageful behaviour of the narcissist......too unsafe for her. I also know that she was mentioned by the complainant as being a witness to some major incidents, and she is afraid that the narcissist will start to groom her in case she is called to give evidence. I think she is staying out in part in order to avoid the intimidation of all that.

So that is where it is to-day. As this is a new situation for me, so I shall be reading anything that you may have on your Narc on Work Forum that would assist me through this very difficult process.

Phew!!! That was head wrecking to write, hope your head is better than mine (Ha! ha!).
Goodnight for now, would love if you had anything to contribute.....every little bit of advice would be of enormous help.