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I realized that there was "no justice for all" after I had been bullied. I had grown up saying the Pledge of Allegiance and I believed every word when I was young. The destruction of that myth was what almost caused me to faint as an adult when I had to say those words again after being bullied and blocked from working. That was also the moment that I knew I had to fight the injustice of workplace bullying.
The blue background behind the stars is part of a Christmas card that my bully sent me just before she sprung her trap on me — wishing me my dreams and wishes, while she plotted to destroy them!
The figure in the center is a symbol of justice. The center of the figure is a sword cutting through to the truth as part of the human spirit.
These are snippets from different participants' stories that align with the message of this art piece
"I believed that the law protected me. And that is like believing that the law protects me from being raped. When the facts show that it doesn't... The law does not protect people."
"I believe that the law protects me... [But] I found out is that that is… absolute bullshit. Like, you cannot… say something without having… I couldn't speak up to someone else being bullied without experiencing retribution myself."
"I picture myself rolling a rock up a hill while the leadership team did nothing."
"I thought I lived in a world where… there were legal things, and there were illegal things... I was wrong."
"Questions that they ask do not get at the heart of the matter. I mean, the questions that they ask, want to prove the manager's innocence and the agency's innocence. I mean, you know that the ultimate goal of agency is to protect itself. You know, it is not to protect employees."
"I knew from working at this organization that it has everything laid out to make it all seem fair. And what should be fair, and they have all these rules. [But] there's so many different ways that managers and supervisors can override that."
"I no longer respect the brand. I do not withhold the truth when I talk about the brand. I encourage people to seek employment somewhere else."
"HR is not your friend. Uh, no. Not at all. Leadership? No. And like I said, your co-workers are not going to help you."
"They're absolutely aware that people need their jobs to live… and they know how to get people to cave… HR is loss prevention, and she works to prevent the company from being liable in any way."
"I wish they had not denied that there was a real problem. I wish they had not been focused on the wrong thing… they were all worried about liability… trying to find a scapegoat."
"My therapist had told me… 'You have to find a better way to win'… And I—that's the… the day I went to work and came home… I decided I want to get involved in advocacy."
"I've become an advocate, taking my story to the State House, because I don't want anyone else to feel like they are in a 'dark room by themselves.'"
"I am now a team lead... to advance some of that legislation, just because it has impacted my life in such a significant way... I might as well do something effective with these experiences."
"I wanted to bring this idea to the forefront, because nobody is doing that there... All I want to do is, like, fix the problem so that people do not have to go through this."
The Takeaway
We are taught to believe in systems. The law protects us. Report through the proper channels, and justice will follow.
These voices tell a different story.
These stories show what happens when people trust the systems meant to protect them—and those systems fail or betray them. Many participants believed that if they followed the rules, used the proper channels, and reported the harm, justice would prevail. Instead, they discovered that organizational systems often protect the institution rather than the people within it.
That realization can be devastating. It shatters trust in leadership, in policies, and sometimes in the very idea of fairness itself. For some, that moment of disillusionment becomes a turning point. They choose to speak out, advocate for change, and work toward a future where workplace bullying is recognized and taken seriously.
And you do not have to experience bullying yourself to become an advocate for change.
Will you add your voice?
Understand the Research Behind This Story
Learn about organizational sensegiving, sensebreaking, epistemic injustice, and how to take action.
Explore Research Findings →