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If you are bullied at work, you are not alone, writes Josephine Hocking. One in four people suffer workplace bullying, a Manchester University survey in 2000 found. Bullying is the fifth biggest cause of stress at work (after workloads, change, cuts in staff and long hours), according to a 2004 TUC survey.

Social care staff were the third largest group (after teachers and health care staff) to call the UK national workplace bullying advice line before it closed last year. Voluntary sector workers were fourth largest.

An appeal court ruling last month, when an employee successfully sued an NHS trust, should make it easier for staff to get compensation for workplace bullying in future. This might make employers tighten up on bullying, to stop cases ever getting to court.

The good news is there are practical steps you can take to beat the bullies. The most important thing is to recognise and address the problem early, before it gets out of hand.

What is bullying?

"Bullying tends to creep up on you. It's not usually a violent outburst but more likely snide comments that undermine and wear you down. Often, people don't identify it as bullying for a long time," says Matt Witheridge, operations manager at the Andrea Adams Trust, campaigners on workplace bullying.
Conciliation service Acas says bullying includes spreading malicious rumours, or insulting someone, particularly on the grounds of race, sex, disability, sexual orientation, religion or belief; ridiculing or demeaning someone; and making threats or comments about job security without foundation.

What can I do?

Don't hope the problem will go away because it probably won't. Speak up quickly before it escalates and you become demoralised.

• Try talking to the bully informally, who may not even realise he or she is causing offence. If that doesn't work, go to your manager (or the next person up if the bully is your manager). Or try human resources, occupational health or your union.
• Find out if your employer has an anti-bullying policy.
• Try and be calm and objective or you may be unfairly seen as a malicious troublemaker.
• Before taking out a grievance procedure pursue informal routes.

Sue (not her real name) is a mental health social worker with 22 years' experience. She left her job at a London borough after being bullied. "I felt increasingly sidelined, belittled and crushed. My clients suffered as I couldn't represent them properly," she says.

Despite a 100 per cent turnover of staff in her office in two years, no one identified bullying as an issue. All her old colleagues had already left and Sue got no support.

She feels it is particularly unethical to bully a mental health social worker, who is "already exposed to high levels of distress".

She now works for another London borough. Her old post remains unfilled.

Gather evidence

Keep a diary of bullying incidents including times, dates, witnesses, what was said, and how you felt. Hold on to relevant e-mails and letters. This will help you establish a pattern of bullying behaviour and record frequency of incidents and is much more useful when building a case than trying to remember what was said over previous months and years.

Get support

Share what's happening with family and friends and consider counselling. Two useful websites are Bully Online at www.bullyonline.org and the Andrea Adams Trust at www.andreaadamstrust.org. The Andrea Adams Trust runs a bullying helpline on 01273 704900 (10am-4pm, Monday to Friday).

You can find a helpful leaflet by conciliation service Acas at www.acas.org.uk/publications/AL05.html