Do bullies from childhood remain bullies throughout their entire life?

[joseb]

 

Adults can't be bullies or bullied; they can only have insufficient social skills when effectively dealing with others, which will either cause them to be "victimized" by others (who are then mislabeled "bullies") or the (incorrectly labeled "bully") is actually [on their way to being] a criminal/social outcast.

 

It always makes me raise an eyebrow when I hear adults calling other adults "bullies"; as with most cases, IMHO, it says more about the label-makers, themselves, than it does the people they're attempting to slap the label on.

 

I think if you hold this believe, you have not worked long enough in disparate corporate environments.

 

I've seen quite a few workplace bullies (and the term fits them perfectly).

They love being in a position of power and use it to bully their subordinates, using their job title as an excuse.

 

Prime examples of "victims" as you call them are immigrants on work visas who either are unaware of workplace rules or are too worried to lose their residence rights by causing a problem, or just normal folk who like to do a good job and mistakenly think that if they keep doing more and more work for the bully they will be rewarded.

 

You could maybe argue that these have insufficient social skills, but then about 50% of people do.