This book represents the most important product of the largest, specialist research programme on ill-treatment in the workplace so far undertaken. The programme dates from 2006 when the authors began work on a funding bid to the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council. The project funded by this successful bid (award number RES-062-23-312) provided the bulk of the original data which are discussed in the book. Public funds also paid for the UK Government’s Fair Treatment at Work Survey (FTWS) which provided valuable supporting evidence that we cite at various points. The book therefore owes its existence to public funds but its value derives from the further, unpaid contribution of thousands of British employees who spared the time to tell us about their own experiences, no matter that they sometimes found this hard, and even distressing. It is to their stories that we turn first of all.