In the gleaming architecture of the modern workplace, there exists a ghost in the machine, a systemic pathology that operates in the open, yet remains largely invisible. It is not a software bug or a market fluctuation; it is a deeply human flaw in the corporate code. It is workplace bullying, a sophisticated and insidious form of psychological violence that our current systems are profoundly ill-equipped to handle. For decades, it has been normalized, minimized, and dismissed, leaving a trail of broken careers, fractured families, and profound human suffering. And into this systemic void walked Linda Crockett, a woman who not only survived the ghost in the machine but returned with its source code. She is the whistleblower and trauma therapist who helped identify the workplace pandemic and continues to guide others in building healthier, safer work cultures.
As the founder of The Canadian Institute of Workplace Bullying Resources (CIWBR), Linda is the central figure in a quiet but powerful revolution. With 15 years of specialized expertise, she is a researcher, consultant, trauma therapist, and author, but these titles are merely components of a much larger identity. She is an architect of psychological safety, a systems thinker who has deconstructed the complex mechanics of workplace abuse and is now building the comprehensive, trauma-informed infrastructure needed to dismantle it. Her work is not about wellness perks or conflict resolution in the traditional sense. It is a deep, diagnostic intervention into the heart of organizational culture.
Linda’s own story is the crucible from which her mission was forged. She does not approach this work from the detached perspective of an academic; she comes to it with the hard-won wisdom of a survivor. This lived experience gives her an unshakable authority and a profound empathy that is the lifeblood of her institute. She has looked into the abyss of workplace trauma, and instead of turning away, she chose to build a lighthouse. Today, with five awards recognizing her pioneering work, she is a global leader, a strategist, and the keeper of thousands of stories, the quiet, painful narratives of workplace abuse that she is weaving into a new, more hopeful reality.
The Crucible
Every great innovator has an origin story, a moment where personal experience collides with a systemic failure, igniting a new purpose. Linda’s began long before she had a name for the beast she would one day confront.
For twenty-two years, she worked as a social worker across nearly every realm of human suffering imaginable, domestic violence, sexual abuse, child abuse, addictions, mental health, and poverty, helping thousands navigate systems as fractured and complex as their own pain. She became a master at creating safety in the midst of chaos, a translator of trauma, a steady guide through the labyrinth of suffering.
It was only after she moved into her role at a Cancer Centre as a medical social worker, where she herself became the target of brutal psychological violence including mobbing and lateral violence, that left her with post-traumatic stress disorder, that the full pattern came into view. In her recovery, she recognized that what she had endured was not an isolated incident, but part of the same systemic pathology she had witnessed and experienced countless times before. She had lived inside the very machinery she would spend the rest of her life working to expose and repair.
It is a cruel irony that those who dedicate their lives to helping others often become the ones most deeply wounded. In 2010, after decades spent tending to the pain of others, and while caring for and grieving her terminally ill mother, Linda became the target of a campaign of psychological violence so severe that she was later diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.
“At that time, there was no training or awareness to help professionals identify or respond to this insidious form of workplace abuse,” she explains. Through her ordeal, Linda learned a devastating truth: workplace bullying bears no resemblance to the playground cruelty of childhood. It is far more insidious, sophisticated, and deeply woven into organizational culture.
Her own resilience, advocacy, and sense of justice, the very traits that made her an exceptional social worker, were weaponized against her. “I kept standing up for myself and working harder,” she recalls. “But the more I tried to persevere, the worse the bullying became.”
Her persecutors included a psychologist, a social worker, human resources personnel, and even a pastor. Her silent witnesses were colleagues, psychologists, social workers, and admin staff, all bound by fear, silence, or complicity.
“Even if you were perfect, you would be bullied because you’re perfect. This is not about a flaw in anyone, because we all have them. This is about a fracture in the person that is causing the harm.”
This experience was her crucible. It was a journey through the fire of long-term, cumulative abuse that left her psychologically and physically injured. But from those ashes rose a new, unshakeable resolve. “Once I began to understand what workplace bullying really is, I became determined to break the silence,” Linda says. “I wanted to give people the language to identify it, to fill gaps in our systems, and to help drive legislative change.”
She returned to academia, earning a master’s degree with a focus on workplace bullying and becoming a certified trauma therapist. She had been broken by a system, and now she would dedicate her life to re-engineering it. “I don’t just study this issue; I’ve lived it, I’ve been injured by it, and I’ve turned that pain into purpose,” she states with quiet power. “It is the best work I have ever done.”
The Living Room Revolution
The Canadian Institute of Workplace Bullying Resources did not launch with a venture capital-funded press conference. It began in the most authentic way imaginable. “I cleared out my living room and turned it into an office,” Linda remembers. “I had a board table, 17 volunteers, and nothing but determination to fill a void that no one else in Canada was addressing.” It was a grassroots insurgency against a global problem. At the time, countries like Germany and Norway had dedicated treatment centers for workplace trauma, but in Canada, there was a void.
Her initial vision was a clear, four-part strategic plan to spark a national movement. First, build awareness of a problem that thrived in silence. Second, give people the language to identify the sophisticated tactics of psychological abuse. Third, educate them on their rights and legislation so they understand their power. And fourth, empower them to speak up, believing that their collective voice would create a domino effect. “I believed that speaking out would spark protests, petitions, and ultimately force legislative change,” Linda says.
And it worked. “Complaints have increased, HR has had to pay attention, policies have improved, and standards are slowly being put in place.” Despite facing rejection, minimization, and even ridicule in the early days, she pressed forward, armed with the certain knowledge that this was a systemic, pandemic-level issue. What started in her living room in one province quickly expanded across Canada and then internationally, with clients in the UK, Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Malaysia, and Nigeria. She launched International Workplace Bullying Awareness Week, an initiative that now unites 22 countries every October in a shared voice for change. The institute she prototyped on her living room floor had become a global force.
The Multi-Pronged Solution
Linda’s strategic genius is most evident in the architecture of CIWBR’s services. She understood that a single-point solution, only helping targets, for instance, was like treating one symptom of a multi-organ disease. To truly address the pathology, you had to treat the entire system. Her institute is therefore intentionally multidisciplinary, a formidable team of experts whose reach is as vast as the problem itself. No industry is immune, and her work reflects that reality, spanning government and political offices, Indigenous communities (First Nations, Métis, Inuit), academic institutions, non-profits, for-profits, oil and gas, healthcare, education, and retail.
This team delivers a holistic, trauma-informed suite of services designed for every stakeholder:
- For Leaders, HR, and Unions, they are systems architects, strengthening policies, building accountability frameworks, and conducting cultural assessments to engineer psychologically safe workplaces.
- For Targeted Employees, they are a trauma-informed response team, providing validation, therapy, and strategic guidance to help them recover and navigate a complex and often-hostile system.
- For Bystanders, they are empowerment coaches, offering tools and strategies to intervene safely and effectively, transforming them from passive witnesses to active allies.
- For Respondents (the accused), they offer a path to accountability and change, providing a safe space for education and rehabilitation for those open to transforming their behavior.
The expertise required to deliver this is immense. “Workplace bullying is a complex issue that cuts across legal, psychological, cultural, and organizational systems,” Linda notes.
Accordingly, her team includes professionals from social work, occupational health and safety, law, human rights, labor relations, psychology, psychiatry, medicine, and organizational leadership. This allows them to not just address a single facet of a problem, but to see the entire, interconnected system. Crucially, this expertise is not just for her clients; it is for her peers.
“Several of us are workplace licensed therapists, coaches, educators, coaches, but we are all consultants. We not only support injured workers in recovery but Linda also trains other professionals—therapists, unions, even lawyers—in how to recognize and respond to psychological injuries caused by workplace abuse.” Linda offers a ‘train the trainer’ model, with mentorship, designed to scale the solution and build capacity far beyond her own institute.
Diagnosing the Pandemic
“Workplace bullying and harassment have always been a critical issue,” Linda asserts. “The difference today is not that it suddenly became worse, but that it is finally being exposed.” For decades, the stories were hidden, the abuse normalized. Now, a confluence of social media, new legislation, and growing research has begun to break the silence.
But with greater awareness comes a more sophisticated form of abuse. “I am seeing more cases where injuries caused by bullying—like chronic insomnia, anxiety, or PTSD—are weaponized against the target,” Linda warns. A toxic leader, for example, might use an employee’s understandable dip in performance, a direct result of the abuse, to justify a punitive performance improvement plan, turning a tool for growth into a weapon of intimidation.
This is the kind of nuanced, evolving threat that Linda, as a master strategist, is constantly analyzing. She understands that this is a global pandemic, citing that in Canada alone, more than 40% of workers report experiencing psychological harm, with international studies suggesting rates as high as 60%. The problem is not new, but our language for it is. “We are articulating it better, measuring it more consistently, and exposing its devastating impact not only on individuals but on families, organizations, and entire economies,” she says, underscoring the urgency of her mission.
The Metrics of Healing
In a world obsessed with quarterly earnings and growth charts, Linda measures success by a different, more profound metric: change. “Not necessarily justice,” she clarifies, “because in today’s world that’s often elusive given the systemic gaps we’re still facing. But when I see positive change in an employee’s life—that’s where success lies.”
Many clients arrive at her door feeling depleted and hopeless. The first sign of success is the shift from target to survivor. (Linda intentionally uses the term ‘target’ over ‘victim,’ emphasizing that this is about people being targeted, not inherent victimhood.)
“When they start to rediscover who they are, heal, grow, and reconnect with their own strength—that’s a true measure of success.” A financial settlement, she notes, rarely heals the deep psychological wounds. “What matters more is accountability—that the person who caused harm is held responsible, and that no one else will have to go through the same experience.” That sense of prevention is a powerful marker of a successful intervention.
“Those who have been impacted by workplace, psychological hazards, have to commit to their healing with or without justice. This is a lot about self-worth. Make sure you prioritize your recovery. It will empower you regardless of what you decide to do.”
And the ultimate success? “When survivors transform into thrivers,” Linda says with warmth. “Watching people turn their pain into purpose, becoming advocates, mentors, or simply a supportive voice for someone else going through it, that’s when, I know the ripple effect is real. That, to me, is the deepest success of all.”
The Cost and Courage of Advocacy
The path of a true revolutionary is rarely smooth. For Linda, one of the greatest tests of her leadership has come from an unexpected front: others in her own field. “Ironically, I’ve been bullied and even mobbed by some of them,” she reveals. She attributes it to a mix of jealousy, insecurity, and discomfort with her unwavering standards.
“Because I am fiercely protective of my clients… I will speak up if I see practices, language, or interventions that risk causing them further harm,” she says. This commitment to integrity has, at times, been met with retaliation, including smear campaigns, sabotage, and even theft of her materials, forcing her to issue cease-and-desist orders. It was a painful reminder of how easily offenders can be believed. These moments tested her deeply, but they also clarified her resolve. “Leadership means holding the line even when it’s uncomfortable—speaking the truth, protecting the vulnerable, and refusing to lower my standards even when I’m under attack.”
The Ripple Effect
Looking forward, Linda’s vision is focused on sustainability and scale. She is publishing research and working on a book right now. She is also launching specialized advisory committees to create tailored solutions for different industries. The non-profit she also created, The Canadian Institute of Workplace Harassment and Violence, is on a path to achieve charitable status to provide urgently needed funds for injured workers.
Most importantly, she is committed to building capacity across Canada. The non-profit is specifically in place to help injured workers with legal consultations and/or treatment. It is just another injustice that most of these employees do not have the funds needed to stand up for themselves or heal.
“I want to train and mentor consultants, trainers, and therapists in every province so that resources like mine exist nationwide,” Linda says. “This work is bigger than me, and with retirement on the horizon, I feel a responsibility to make sure there are skilled, trauma-informed professionals ready to carry it forward.”
Self-insight is the Answer
To sustain herself in this demanding work, Linda has learned the hard lesson of balance, scheduling downtime with the same seriousness she schedules a client. She finds restoration in nature, in creative outlets like painting, making jewelry, and singing, and in time with her family.
Her final message is a distillation of her journey, a piece of wisdom from the woman who has navigated the darkest corners of the human experience and emerged with a blueprint for a better world. “Leaders need to walk their talk,” she insists.
“Practice what you preach, acknowledge mistakes, we will always make them, but learn from them.” And above all, she champions the development of emotional intelligence. “Self-awareness, empathy, and emotional regulation will make you a better leader… whatever role you play.” It is the advice of a true master, a woman who has transformed her own story of trauma into a global narrative of hope, healing, and profound, systemic change.
“I believe self-insight is the answer. Whether you are a witness, employee, who is targeted, or an offender, or leader, self-monitoring, keeping yourself in check, knowing who you are, that’s the answer. My recommendation is developing your emotional intelligence, taking a course, reading a book, continuing to grow in this area will make you the best human being you could be.”
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