The best books about bullies being put in their place

I love this book because it puts a face, a name, and some levity behind the humorless and confusing subject of workplace bullying.

In Miranda Priestly, we are introduced to the queen of all bullies. Her consistent pattern of health-harming mistreatment of staff makes it obvious that people should not only get out of her way, but, better still, leave their job. Immediately. Yet, in her prime target, Andi, we see ourselves and the lengths we’ll go to just to stay in “the game.”

This book puts workplace bullying in your face, where you can’t look away—and that’s the first step necessary to doing something about it. 

I love this book! Sexism and scarcity are two of the three most potent ingredients in an unhealthy workplace, and they are also two of the major themes highlighted in Bonnie Garmus’ book.

In Elizabeth Zott, we discover a woman who doesn’t waste time trying to figure out the rules of her workplace’s patriarchal system. Instead, she uses the system to her benefit. Zott will neither submit to its unwritten norms, nor will she lower her standards to perpetuate the illusion of scarcity that is being served to her daily. Instead, she denies this fiction, and with that she prevents the third unhealthy workplace ingredient—shame—from taking hold.

Her win is in pulling herself, and other women, up alongside her. 

I recommend this non-fiction book because it does an incredible job of highlighting the issue of sexual harassment in the workplace. Unlike sexual harassment, workplace bullying is not illegal.

When workplace bullying takes on a sexual or physical tone, we may be quicker to see the wrongness of it than when we are assaulted with words, put-downs, and disrespect, yet the fear that victims experience is similar.

Both fear retaliation. Both fear loss of earning power. Both fear damage to their reputation, their credibility, their community. And both think they somehow allowed the mistreatment. Both think they are alone. And both most often see no way out beyond eating their words and stuffing away their experience.

This book is valuable in helping targets of workplace bullying put language to the emotional, psychological, and physical destruction they are experiencing. 

Leave it to the master of horror, Stephen King, to dream up the ultimate comeuppance story.

High school student Carrie is bullied relentlessly by her peers, both at school and outside its walls. Her mother’s treatment of her at home doesn’t help. But one day Carrie realizes she has supernatural powers that dwarf the “powers” her classmates think they wield over her.

I don’t condone what happens on prom night, of course, but anyone who’s ever been bullied will agree that the fantasy of turning the tables on your tormentor(s) can be…very satisfying.

Matilda—both in prose and musical form—is one of my favorite stories about bullies getting what’s coming to them, and the victim emerging with a better life.

Matilda’s parents and older brother are terrible people; her schoolmates and headmistress are not any better. But Matilda has a champion—an ally—in her corner: her teacher Miss Honey. With the confidence and support that just one friend brings, Matilda stands up to all the others.

She speaks up for herself and won’t let the bullies get away with their bad behavior. In doing so, she charts a happier course for her life—an end result to which anyone who’s being bullied can aspire.