Is This Bullying?

The risk manager at work is planning to "scare" a vendor whom she believes said something "untrue" about one of our employees. She is going to scare him by calling him pretending to be an attorney with a lawsuit against him for slander. Is this bullying? At the very least, it's combating a possible lie with a lie.

This person is a classic bully in my opinion. She is rewarded by management with promotions and raises although the rest of us are afraid of her. One of the first things I heard about her when I started working there about a year ago was to watch out for her, not to trust her, that she would throw anyone under a bus to save her own hide. All of that has proven true. Last year, I discovered a situation where she had clearly not been doing her job and it was impacting my job. I handled it with her directly and did not involve anyone else. From that point on, I have had difficulties with her. Her failure to do her job was known by the CEO and put the organization at risk. She got promoted from manager to director, got a raise and won "Manager of the Year" for 2009. As the risk manager, her bullying may help the organization to pay less in settlements. That's the only reason I can imagine she would be of value.

No matter how simple a misunderstanding, she will turn it into an opportunity to be aggressive towards people: the principal at her children's school, a secretary, a colleague. And she brags about it to anyone who's willing to listen. She seems to take pride in being a bully.

I deliberately resigned from my director position, am working part time in a much lesser role, and started graduate school full time so that I can get out of there. It was a sacrifice but I am feeling much better now that I don't cross paths with her, but I am still concerned about her making some attempt to mess with me.

What make these kind of people tick? I think she's a psychopath.