I live in Australia, near the coast and so I think I just grew up with a common fear of being attacked by a shark. Ever since I can remember I have being afraid of sharks. Even though I didn't actually go to the beach much when I was a kid I was still afraid of them.

I've since found out that I have about a one chance in 3 million of actually being attacked by a shark. All those years that I worried about being attacked by a shark...wasted...1 in 3 million, I should have spent my energy getting excited about winning lotto because I'ld have a better chance of that happening than being bitten by a shark.

The thing is though there is another type of predator out there that is just as dangerous as a shark and I have a one in 3 chance that this predator will get me...one in three. And yet no one told me about it when I was a kid, no one warned me to watch out for it and what to do if it attacked me.

This predator is common, dangerous, usually left undetected and unreported.

So what is it? Maybe you were thinking snakes, we have a lot of those in Australia too, or crocodiles, we've got them too or how about some of our poisonous spiders? All of these things are definitely predators and they are dangerous but they are better detected and reported that the predator I am talking about.

The predator I am talking about lives in the workplace...maybe your workplace. And this predator looks for someone that they can be powerful over and they do it in a number of ways, the most common ones are usually by bullying them, intimidating and harassing them.
These predators are clever, I'll give them that much. They often wait until no one else is around, before they attack. They play games with the victim, maybe making them think it is their problem. Often they attack them over a long period of time, slowly, ever so slowly, bringing the victim down, further and further into a spiral of self doubt, depression, anxiety and stress. Until finally broken, beaten the victim leaves. The wounds? Perhaps not as visible as that from a shark attack but they heal slower that a bite from a shark.

So, I'm guessing no one told you about this predator when you were a kid. Maybe no one has told you about this predator, and you are an adult. These days I'm more concerned about the attacks that happen in the workplace than I am about the attacks that happen in the ocean.