I used to work for a major (flag carrier) airline in i.t. support at Heathrow. For all the years I was there - 24+ - there was a blame culture that emanated from the top down. I was at grass roots level so got the lot.

In my last year before retirement I was bullied by 12 peers (one a manager) also in i.t. support who set up an illegal bulletin board (on Lotus Notes) on the Intranet. They were all ardent football supporters - bored and with too much time to waste. On this they posted photos of other office staff in deliberately contrived situations, and posted numerous comments about their peers and management. Some pictures were of a sexual nature. The comments included personal attacks on individuals including myself. When I heard about this I tricked one of them - who was actually somewhat appalled at what was going on - into sending me a copy of the LN database. I immediately reported them. A disciplinary investigation was held - which lasted 6-months. Meanwhile I didn't know whom I could trust and I saw some of them on a daily basis - they usually changed direction rather than walk past me. Eventually they were disciplined and some threatened with dismissal - but this never happened. Six of them had to write me letters of apology - which remain unopened and unread to this day. However the stress of all of this caused me to lose all of my hair - and unlike Gail Porter it ain't growing back. I never got any compensation. So when early retirement was offered - along with 500 others - we all took the pension and ran. I've never looked back.

One of the other bullying episodes was from a grossly over-weight male project leader, who thought he knew everything about i.t. but actually didn't know anything at all. He's already been thrown out of the Engineering department. Talk about throwing his weight around - literally. But on a number of issues I had to challenge his ideas because what he wanted us to do was quite clearly incorrect and bad for our customers (in Finance). On one occasion he wrote me a 12 page performance review which was offensive and full of emotional diatribe. This caused my rating (and salary to go down). I had to go to the Union to get it withdrawn. Which they achieved and my rating was restored - but he never forgot nor forgave.

Towards the end I also had a woman manager who again made my life hell. She was unmarried and frustrated as hell. She used to disappear on Fridays and Mondays to 'work at home.' But when we looked into her online diary she actually flew to/from Manchester. The 'work at home' was actually one long weekend after another. She really laid into me once for missing a deadline for producing some insignificant s/w app. Not my fault - she had given me programming work I had not been trained for. Anyway she really laid it on the line how disappointed she was at the missed deadline. It was only afterwards when I asked the customers (in Finance) about it when they told me that the project had actually been cancelled a few weeks before - which she had known about but hadn't bothered to tell me.

Incidentally cabin crew are going on strike again soon. With such bullying management I'm not surprised.