Bullying At Work

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Has anybody experienced bullying in the workplace and if so, what did you do about it? I have been bullied twice, once in a different part of the country and the second where I live now. The first instance was my boss at Lancashire County Council! She would take it in turns who she would bully during a particular week. One week she decided to bully me on my performance targets and I hadn't even had the chance to take my coat off..she was shouting across the office at me! Before I knew it we were having a massive argument in a smaller office and she wouldn't stop shouting until I burst into tears. She also told me "I know something you don't young lady" which made me think I was for the chop. At that point I flew upstairs to Human Resources in floods of tears. When I told them what she had said they could not believe their ears...because what she should have said was, "that guy who is being re-deployed from another office will not be coming here so you are now a permanent member of staff!" I was then told to see my ultimate boss who wanted us both in his office but he ended up speaking to us individually. Eventually, she was sacked but no-one knows for sure if it was her bullying that was responsible. She did have a drink problem though which was well-known to all the staff. Shame really because she could be quite nice i.e. loves animals, sensitive, etc. The second instance was my first job here in Carlisle, a completely different County and a different way of doing things. Upon starting the job I was taken aback by the fact that no-one would speak to me and even when I asked one of them something they would just snap one sentence at me without looking up from their computers! One woman asked me if my partner was from Carlisle and I said, "yes." "Well, that's alright then!" she replied. In other words, because he was a local it was OK for me to be there...sort of. It all came to a head when she accused me (whilst I was sitting with my back to her) of not filing properly and leaving stuff out for other people to do! She was talking to someone else at the time but I know she meant me...and I also know that I had done what I was asked to do the previous day! If I had missed some filing then it was the fault of the person training me so I complained to my manager about it. She told me that I was "probably homesick" and not to go on about it too much. In the end I resigned!