Bullying in the workplace is a big problem and it turns out that smart people are not exempt from participating.

Kenneth Westhues is a leading expert in the field, having studied the practice extensively, which he calls "mobbing". He has published several papers and books about it.

Some references on the topic:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bullying_in_academia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenneth_Westhues

http://arts.uwaterloo.ca/~kwesthue/mobbing.htm

The game is often played until the selected victim quits, commits suicide, or in some rare cases, snaps and comes to work with a gun.