The effects of bullying and cyberbullying
People are people. Sometimes bad things happen to us in our life, through no fault of our own.
Do we help and support people going through these hard times in their life?
Or do we mock, cyberbully harass, and stalk them, forcing their state of mind into a deep depression and damaging misery, or even push them so far as to end their life?
What type of person are you?
No matter how hard we try, sometimes some people simply don't care and have no respect for others, or there may be obstacles in our way.
Let's use Julie as an example:
Julie and her husband John worked tirelessly, long days to build a self-publishing business model like no other. They had five years in business with not one genuine complaint. Julie cared deeply for her clients and still does. Julie claimed she was not paying anyone to consult with her own clients, so her time given filled the need to care in her heart. That is who she really is and has been all her life.
I have known Julie for 40 years. Julie had given her home, time, and funds to many homeless and young people who she claimed 'simply fell off the track in life'. Some of these people were very appreciative and went on to lead good lives, and some took advantage of her soft nature.
Yes. Julie has faults. Who doesn't? Julie is easily intimidated, bullied, quite naive, and very trusting. These faults portrayed a disastrous chain of events that brought her down at the most venerable time in her life.
Her business was growing rapidly. A man from New Zealand phoned her and begged her for work. He came to Australia, and Julie eventually gave him a job. However, several of Julie's dear friends did not trust the man and warned Julie. However, Julie is quite naive and very trusting, and she employed him regardless. A lesson to be learned here.
A year later. Julie's husband was diagnosed with a deadly illness, her mother was also in the hospital with cancer. Her father was not very well either. While visiting the hospitals for her family, her employee started to remove her clients and work materials, databases, etc., positioning them elsewhere. Julie found out by accident and immediately fired this employee. It was shocking to see a new business name and new ABN online, in full operation days after the sacking.
Her business was growing rapidly. A man from New Zealand phoned her and begged her for work. He came to Australia, and Julie eventually gave him a job. However, several of Julie's dear friends did not trust the man and warned Julie. However, Julie is quite naive and very trusting, and she employed him regardless. A lesson to be learned here.
A year later. Julie's husband was diagnosed with a deadly illness, her mother was also in the hospital with cancer. Her father was not very well either. While visiting the hospitals for her family, her employee started to remove her clients and work materials, databases, etc., positioning them elsewhere. Julie found out by accident and immediately fired this employee. It was shocking to see a new business name and new ABN online, in full operation days after the sacking.
Julie enrolled a litigation lawyer, and a filing was done in the Beenleigh courthouse against the perpetrators. One of her dear loyal authors, who witnesses the unethical behaviour, helped her with the initial deposit for this.
The master plan was clear. There was no way these grown men would let her afford the fees to move her litigation filing forward. Then came deliberate pre-meditated bullying and harassment towards her and her business. She was slandered to her clients, unethical standards in business formed, and most of her clients poached over to his new place of employment. The sacked employee told one of her clients to go sit on her office doorstep and wait for his books, as he will never get them. But the ones that saw through this unethical, illegal practice stayed with her and supported her.
Julie was never compensated for the theft of her livelihood.
Julie worked day and night to keep afloat and ensure whatever clients she had left with her were cared for. All while being harassed, bullied, and slandered at the same time, with illegal torting (removing contracts from another business) in place, all while attempting to be there for her dying family.
Now, this is a woman with a dying family, and these are supposed three grown men initially, going in full force at one single grieving woman. The damage control was enormous and took up a lot of her precious time. She was robbed of the time she dearly wanted to spend with her dying husband. This hurt her and would hurt anyone. There were late nights where she sat in her office at the computer working ferociously fast to work with the damage control, where she was fighting back the tears so she could see her keyboard. Some of her loyal clients believe they did this, so she could not afford the litigation filing she filed in the Beenleigh Courthouse. It was a robbery in the lowest unethical and cruellest form.
The woman was blackmailed, haunted, stalked, bullied, and defamed horrifically, right up to today's date, especially with this writing and comments on this Writer Beware site. Even the police and newspapers took advantage of him.
The woman was blackmailed, haunted, stalked, bullied, and defamed horrifically, right up to today's date, especially with this writing and comments on this Writer Beware site. Even the police and newspapers took advantage of him.
New clients she had in place. Some were poached over to the sacked employees' workplace, some stayed, and some simply demanded refunds.
Julie eventually was forced into taking up bankruptcy and taken quite ill from all the pre-mediated unethical harassment. These supposed three grown men played a big part in this and any other site riddled with harassment, lies, and tort.
Cyberbullying causes such stress and illness to ordinary people. Soft-hearted people are easy targets. Suicide through cyber-bullying is on the increase.
The newspapers and news won't change the way they write stories. People are attracted to drama and other people's misery. The adrenalin rush!
And they all claim they care so much about authors. Do they?
Because if they cared so much about authors, they should have just left her alone, so she could work, take care of her family and authors.
The length of time with the harassment took a toll on her health and state of mind.
She sold her domain name and threw in the towel in 2016, giving all her hard work to an ethical, professional businessman. He thought he would hide her from the prying eyes of the bullies and give her some peace to grieve for her dying family. She worked part-time as an employee under the care of a psychologist supplemented by Centrelink and commenced instalments to genuine authors who were out of pocket through the bankruptcy.
But with pre-meditated unethical tactics, bullying etc., the torting was too much for this honest gentleman to endure. After enduring sixteen months of harassment in many forms to remove him from the business world, for the sake of competition and the green $ $$$, he finally resigned from the Love of Books ABN around 2018.
This decision came after a long communication was done consoling one of Ian's clients, where this client A.G was working on a large contract for several books. Ian was told that he visited a man named D.M.s blog post. He rang this man D.M. and D.M. defamed and frightened Ian's client, ordered him to pull his contract in place from Ian's Love of Books Australia-wide business. Ian managed to console his client and keep the contract in place. But the communication was immensely torturing for him. Free design services were provided to comfort and compensate the client at the cost of $2,000 for the damaging, frightening communication he had endured with D.M. This job caused a loss - NILL profit for sale.
Ian could see a pattern emerging, similar to what Julie endured emerging, where clients engaged in communication with D.M became frightened and pulled out of her business. One such example is a school that had a contract in place for books with Julie. D.M. caused the contract to be pulled from her. Their funds were already overseas. It took months to get the funds returned to her business. But she had paid this school back their funds as soon as the funds were returned.
Julie had a few clients that lost their funds through this tort and bankruptcy, yes. Due to the bankruptcy conditions and terms, no one needs to pay their creditors. However, Julie is dedicated and committed, paying them through instalments.
The harassment ruthlessly laid upon her and her business was so out of control that the business was back peddling to pay even its own bills. She desperately needed to work and to care. People seeing unethical harassment online would turn away.
I was not on the scene then, unfortunately. She was approached by a supposed Church, claiming God had called her. These people manipulated her through constant prayers of hope, consoling her, and learning every single little thing about her profile, you can imagine. Julie did feel better again being with these people. This kept her alive, as she felt a new life purpose Serving God during her mourning.
She was approached by these people claiming to be from the church. But it was some sort of religious mind-altering cult. They saw her mourning posts on her Facebook is how they found her, I believe.
The newspaper wrote their own story on this, which is far from the actual truth. I guess that is what newspapers do ongoing to create public interest, just like this site does. People are simply drawn to gossip and exaggeration. The news would not sell if it was peaceful and boring, would it?
She was approached by these people claiming to be from the church. But it was some sort of religious mind-altering cult. They saw her mourning posts on her Facebook is how they found her, I believe.
The newspaper wrote their own story on this, which is far from the actual truth. I guess that is what newspapers do ongoing to create public interest, just like this site does. People are simply drawn to gossip and exaggeration. The news would not sell if it was peaceful and boring, would it?
But the facts are, and will never change and always be the facts and truth. Julie is a caring soul, loved by many. The only thieves are the ones who robbed her of her lively-hood, her time with her dying hubby and family, her business databases and equipment, her dignity and health.
QCAT-WARNING: If you are suffering emotionally, get someone to assist you in preparing any QCAT forms you are faced with. Evidence is vital for your case. Don't attempt to face a QCAT or any court believing that the truth will win your case. The legal system doesn't work like that. It all relies on solid evidence.
Julie failed with her naive belief that honesty will prevail. She failed to put forward evidence to assist her in overturning a court order. Cunning, clever people will win and rob you if you are not absolutely tuned in to evidence and crossing the 't's' and dotting the 'i's' with these court processes, forms, and evidence.
Her biggest failure was the belief that by phoning the court on her initial date to say she was violently ill and could not go to court today, she would be given another date for attendance. The operator on the phone simply said, 'Ok, thank you for letting us know. If the operator had said, 'If you don't come today, then the judge will rule in the applicant's favour.' Julie would have gone to the court bucket and towels in hand.
Bullies, scammers, and thieves do rule the world. It is the world we live in.
Love of Books was truly a Love of Books.
Authors residing in remote locations were given support to the tune of opening their home for authors to reside during their publishing process—lots of love, laughter, and enjoyment in between. The family also visited disabled and elderly authors in their own homes. They assisted these beautiful elderly people even with computer processes to give them more control and self-confidence along their journey. The services provided were not only affordable, authors were well-advised and treated with such kindness.
