I've been through way too much at work, especially during the last 16 years of my career.

In one recent job, my boss and his best buddy I am convinced got me fired/laid off. That boss turned into my enemy after I had gone to HR about our reports, which on that day, had me in tears and about to quit. My boss had been out of the office that day, so I couldn't approach him. I didn't think clearly about what I was doing - I simply acted on impulse. I walked into HR's office crying. That turned into HR bringing in the company CEO into the problem with our reports. I was crying because they took up one full week to complete across all clients I carried and I felt they were far too long, far too cumbersome for our clients, and far too time consuming to write, so much so that I had a breakdown.

Well, because I went to HR instead of my boss, that made me my boss's enemy from that day forward. We did rework the reports and the shortened version took half as long. So I helped to improve and make more efficient our reporting process. But my boss resented me for it and made me pay. Eventually, he and his best buddy assigned me a task that was over my head and not in my skill set to do. I wrote an email saying I couldn't do the task because it was far beyond my skill set. The next day, I was let go from my job.

When I got hired on in a new company, I got bullied by a female superior in my first week of work! I got pulled out of orientation for an emergency project assigned by the Company CEO. I was suddenly thrown into meetings, with several people who all seemed to think they knew best when it came to my own work and industry expertise. So, I had to assert myself with my opinions and perspective to gain their buy-in and support. Well, this woman got on the phone with me after those meetings and harassed me for being assertive. She raised her voice at me and berated me for coming across as the expert. I was simply trying to do my job!

HR got involved, and to make a long story short, this woman and my new boss ganged up on me in that call. The boss sided with the bully, and HR didn't know what to do. HR played it neutral.

Well, while this was happening, my old boss and his best buddy left the old company. His best buddy got himself fired. So the CEO, who always liked me, came to me telling me he could hire me back on.

I was so distressed by being bullied by this woman in the new job, that I ended up hospitalized. I negotiated a job offer with my old company and CEO while in a pscyh ward!

I was able to quit the new job after a mere five weeks of employment and go back to the old job, but now without that old boss and his buddy trying to sabotage me.

Unfortunately, everything went wrong once again. and I had to leave the company after only 8 more months of employment due to staffing losses and high turnover on my team and in management.

And just before I had initially landed that job, six years ago I had been bullied by a female company owner in the job before that. She berated me in front of teammates, humiliating me, just for presenting ideas that opposed hers. She did not like to listen to experts on the team, and only wanted to do what she wanted to do versus what would be best for the organization. She was stubborn, strong willed, and very arrogant to think that only she knew best. Why hire experts if you're not going to listen to them?

Well, one night she called me and screamed at me for 20 minutes. I had told her that she will kill the business if she implements a certain website tactic she wanted to implement. She didn't like that input, so she berated me harshly on the phone screaming at me. (and by the way, eventually she DID implement that tactic, which DID kill the entire business as I had predicted!!).

Well, I ended up in the hospital that night, suicidal. The next day once home, I determined that I needed a time out from work,. so I took an unpaid leave of absence due to all the bullying I was experiencing working under this company owner. That leave of absence turned into four months. I looked for another job but was not in good shape to interview. When I returned to work eventually, that boss got into trouble with HR. HR then had to be involved in every email, every communication with any employee, and every phone call with employees, because I had accused her of bullying in a formal complaint.

Eventually, I was laid off/let go from that job and had to scramble to find another one.

This all is what has gone down for me in the last 7 years. Prior to that, there was a lot more bullying occurring in other jobs, to the point of me always getting sick.

I cannot get sick again, and I cannot end up in the hospital again, or needing to take a leave of absence again from work. I cannot let that happen. I am too far along in my career.... and amazingly, I have somehow managed all this time to continue rising in position and in salary, despite all the bullying, the hospitalizations, and my sickness.

I don't feel broken, but I feel the repercussions of it all.... this isn't even the half of what I've experienced in my life. This is only what's happened in the last 6-7 years.

And here I am, having to face bullying yet again in my work environment? When will this pattern end?!?

I'm not feeling sorry for myself or throwing a pity party here - I literally am at a point in my life where I just cannot take it anymore.