I hate saying this, but I've always thought women can be each other's worst enemies. You'd think we'd get over the whole jealousy, competition and low self-esteem issues that can lead to bullying as we get older, but apparently the opposite is true. The Workplace Bullying Institute (yes, it exists!) has found that when women are the bullies in the workplace, they choose other women as their targets almost 70 percent of the time.
I want to say that this hasn't happened to me, but I'd be lying. Although I consider myself a strong woman who won't let anybody walk all over her, the truth is that one female bully I worked with made the environment so that I ended up quitting after not enough was done to control her anger management issues.
Like any type of bullying, the one in the workplace can take a lot of forms, from verbal abuse and offensive behavior to humiliation and intimidation. I was affected mostly by the first two, although she tried to control herself a lot around me because she knew I wouldn't take it quietly. Unfortunately, other co-workers were constantly intimidated and humiliated by this woman, but a lot of them stayed quiet and let it be, fearing for their job security.
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But the thing is they didn't have to. There's absolutely no instance in which any form of bullying–be it verbal or nonverbal–is acceptable. Some people like to call it disrespect or incivility, but the truth is that if anybody is threatening you, interfering with your work or even screaming at you in the workplace, they are bullying you and you need to report them immediately.
Unfortunately, I've seen a lot of these woman-on-woman bullying happening among Latinas and I hope it's just because the majority of my jobs have involved this group of people and not because it's a trend within our community.
Have you ever being bullied by another woman in the workplace? How did you deal with it?
Image via Lara604/flickr
