This is a bad deal for you. I am not sure that I understand corporate structures and how they handle someone defending themselves against bullying or intimidation. I don't know what the altercation is about, but it sounds like the manager who fired you screwed up. Maybe he/she didn't like you? So they used this altercation as a chance to fire you? It really doesn't make sense what corporations do in these situations. I know a guy who accidentally bumped into colleague at work. The colleague grabbed him and slammed him up against the wall. The colleague was fired, but lo and behold, the guy who accidentally did the bumping into the colleague got a five day suspension. The absolute injustice in this situation is appalling. By suspending the innocent person you are telling a narrative to the other employees. That narrative states that bullies must be right in what they do, and fighting back or standing up for yourself is wrong. Even when you don't stand up for yourself you are wrong. There really is no way to change the situations of injustice in our society. It takes way too much money to sue anyone, and lawyers won't touch a situation like this unless they are perfectly sure that they will win. They know that they can't get any money out of you so they won't take on a client when battling against big business. The work place isn't the only place were this sort of thing is happening. There is plenty of injustice in bars, on streets, in police custody, and unfortunately our parents. I myself have been ran out of bars for standing up for myself, while the thug or bully got pats on the back. Now if you asked the bar-tender what he saw, he'd say something like, "That guy, he's an idiot. He deserved it." So even though I'm a compassionate, empathetic, fair kind of person, it doesn't matter to the bar-tender because he thinks it's funny and exciting to see a big thug push smaller guys around. It's funny to him, until it happens to him, then it's not funny anymore. Do you see why injustice and bullying is no allowed in any thinking society? In your case you were bullied by your work-place. Someone above you doesn't give a damn about what happened. They might even think the whole thing is funny because they got to see a smart person such as yourself ran off like a cowardly dog. Your bully boss might get off on stuff like that. Bullying is very much a Lord of the Flies mystery that works it's way into the fabric of culture and lifestyle. It is backed up by the women who love brutes, and by the men who like rubbing shoulders with brutes. The only thing that will end bullying is truth, education, understanding, knowledge, empathy, and humor. Bullying is not funny, and when humor abounds, bullying shrinks. I don't know what else to tell you. Here is what happened to me three years ago. I had a high paying job. The dispatcher in this job was a bully, but not a smart one nor a big one. He started to flick me crap when I went to work at night. We had a few arguments, and almost went to blows one night. Then he threatened to stab me. He threatened me for ten minutes and said he was going to cut me, slice me, bleed me out, and stuff like that. Guess what? I got fired over this situation and he still has his job. Can anyone tell me how it's possible that a good guy gets fired, and a murderous thug gets to keep his job? True, it was his word against mine, but everyone knew that this guy was a bad guy, and everyone knew that I wasn't a liar. Basically, management knew that what I told them was most likely true, but maybe they love the bullying and think it's fun and interesting and exciting? I don't know but it needs to stop.