This New York Times piece, “A Sisterhood of Workplace Infighting,” highlights a phenomenon I have encountered many times in my discussions with people about workplace bullying: Women treating other women like dirt in the workplace. Here’s the link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/11/jobs/11pre.html.
It may be un-PC to report this, but I’ve had women tell me they’ll never work for/with another woman, that female bosses are the worst, etc. For a man to offer an opinion on such assertions is not recommended, so I just listen. But I do know that for women who have had a bad workplace experience at the hands of another female worker, there is no warm fuzzy sense of sisterhood to keep them from stating their opinion. It can be brutal, brutal stuff.
(Thanks to my Suffolk colleague Sara Dillon for forwarding the article.)
I have had some very unpleasant experiences with female bullies at work, to the extent that now I just work for myself. However, I am still battling them – believe it or not – this time in my local supermarket.
There seem to be some women who just can’t seem to stop bullying and being vicious. I feel there is something particuarly sadistic in female nature. I suspect some women, like some men, are on their own pathway to hell.
Sue.
Hi Sue, thank you for your comment. The female-to-female bullying phenomenon definitely needs more study, but we also should remember that men are more likely than women to bully in the workplace. However, it’s also the case that women often pick on other women to bully. This means that women are disproportionately on the receiving end.
[...] is the second time this year the Times has examined this topic: http://newworkplace.wordpress.com/2009/01/16/female-to-female-bullying/ Possibly related posts: (automatically generated)Female to female bullying?Learning about work: [...]