Are you a Victim of a Hostile Workplace?

If you find it increasingly difficult to be a top performer in your job due to a constant abusive co-worker, you may be dealing with a hostile workplace. A hostile work environment can directly involve you or a group of your co-workers and can be from another co-worker or from a person in a managerial or higher level position. A workplace that is hostile consists of a fellow employee making derogatory or rude statements at or about you to other co-workers. It can also be in the form of intimidation, rumors or in a sexually explicit way. You may feel as though you are stuck between a rock and a hard place trying to manage to do your job to the best of your ability while being forced to deal with a hostile work environment. Luckily, there are several steps that you can take to get control of the situation and try to put an end to the abuse once and for all.

Some things that you should keep an eye out for if the workplace bully is someone in a managerial position is to make sure that they are not writing you up for rules you did not break or for work that you did, but did not get credit for. Make sure they are not marking you late for work when you are always there on time. Many people in supervisory or managerial positions abuse their authority and it can go as far as turning into a harassing situation in an effort to get you fired. If you suspect that is going on, you should be mindful of going the extra mile to prove that you are not doing the things you are accused of. This could mean making a photocopy of your completed work and filing it away for a private copy. You can make a copy of your time card to show that you are not going into work late. If you have the proof to show that you are not the one at fault here, bring this situation up to your Human Resources department. That will ensure that you will get this problem addressed with the right people and will prove that you are, in fact, a victim of a hostile workplace when your supervisor will not be able to explain away the inconsistencies with their write-up’s about you.