I speak from experience.  It has happened to me time and time again where I have been subjected to in-office hostility, from supervisors and other coworkers.  It has ranged from a manager using abusive language, and at times that manager being drunk on the job while spewing out his obscenities and threats.  I once took a phone call from a co-worker who threatened to come into the office with a gun and shoot all of us, only to be sent back to my desk by the company owner, which desk was right at the front door, while said owner did nothing.  (Needless to say the shooting never occurred, but I did not appreciate the blatant disregard for my safety as everyone else had offices in the back of our suite.)  I have been subjected to sexual harassment of the hostile environment type, as opposed to quid pro quo, and fired from said job when I finally told the offender (my boss) to stop.  I have endured a managers who have had such severe anger management issues that the company sent him to anger management counseling, but was still forced to endure his outbursts and insults because, well, he was a manager and I was not. I have been called "stupid", screamed about in the third person as if I were not standing there, and had false information perpetrated about me in the work place.  I have been subject to post 9/11 hostility by a manager who told me that the vandalizing of my vehicle was due to my "marrying into the wrong religion."  I was once SEVERELY reprimanded in a 45 minute tirade because a phone message did not reach its intended recipient in a timely manner, even though that message had very little urgency. (When I say in a timely manner, I mean it got to the individual 10 minutes after that person was available to receive it.)  I was fired from that position after talking to HR about the repeated abusive language and behavior by my manager.  I have been ostracized by my co-workers on several occasions despite my attempts to be friendly, cordial and hospitable, and earnest attempts to connect to them in some way so as to have a positive working relationship with them.  I have endured repeated outbursts of hostility, rudeness and been the subject of many an unwarranted complaint by co-workers who seem to have had nothing better to do than to worry about my work and personal habits, than getting their own work done.  In fact, I have taken notice that these people usually end up staying later at the office than others, in what I can only assume is an attempt to make up for the time they spent focusing on others in the office rather than applying themselves to their own work.  The interesting thing about these types of people is that they seem to be the ones who advance in the workplace while others, who have more integrity and work ethic, are left in their dust.

Some advice to those out there regarding Human Resources departments...  Unfortunately, despite rhetoric stating that you do not have to endure these types of situations, the opposite is most likely true.  Regarding the manager that presented me with my 45 minute reprimand, in which I was informed I was "an embarrassment to the company," human resources informed me that my options were to just live with his frequent outbursts and insults, or leave and find something else.  When this is the policy of a company, then it emphasizes that it places very little value on those who it employs and in my case, leads to feelings of worthlessness.  Human resources IS NOT THERE TO PROTECT EMPLOYEES!  They are there to protect the company, and if you are having a problem, it is best not to report it to them.  This raises a red flag and most often YOU will deemed the problem employee and terminated from your position to prevent further complaint regarding your situation, and at said termination, could be offered some sort of compensation or settlement to ensure that no lawsuit follows your departure.  I have experienced this first hand and been advised of this from family members who are in the HR profession.

I suspect I will be purging quite a bit in the next several weeks in the wake of my resignation from my current position, and, in a broader sense, my resignation that is the lion's den of corporate America.

Song Virus du Jour:  "Hold On Tight To Your Dreams" ~ Electric Light Orchestra

Useless Trivia du Jour:  While not a big fan of the movie "Xanadu,"  I LOVE the soundtrack.