Thank you, Jennifer. It sounds like the sensible thing to do - contact HR - and it's the advice I'd give a friend.

Unfortunately, it's a rather evil company (there seems to be a lot of them around these days). How can I explain it to someone who has only worked for decent employers? Senior management don't just ignore bullying behaviour, they instigate it. They're constantly coming up with new tricks to squeeze more work out of fewer employees. One of the things they have to do is blame staff members when (because of the staff numbers being slashed) targets aren't being met. It's one of the reasons my boss is angry, because of all the pressure.

Speaking diplomatically to my boss? I can't really process that scenario at the moment.

It's something I've done in the past (extremely difficult for me... I almost had a heart attack), but the work relationship afterwards was pretty miserable. She loathed me for the things I'd said.

I'm going to give everything some thought. Joining this forum is giving me a new way of looking at things. I had been completely blaming myself and drowning in self-disgust (because of my terrified reaction to anger), but there might be other ways of seeing things.

Thank you for your kindness.