Career Doctor Articles

With the kind permission of the Career Doctor, jfo is able to bring you a series of articles to help you in your work situation and longer term career management

Nasty Women at Work

“ Women are best in a team of one” was some advice I received when I started my career in Personnel Management many years ago, and although I thought this advice was somewhat cynical at the time, the longer I work as a career consultant, the more complaints about women’s behaviour at work I receive. Maybe my advisor was right?

One of my recent articles “Resign or be Dismissed” has led to a significant increase in telephone calls to me from people who are experiencing problems at work. I have had several serious allegations about nasty women colleagues or bosses, and invariably the victim / complainant is also a woman. So why can a woman be really vindictive towards another woman at work?

This unexpected influx of calls has prompted me to write this article and I will illustrate my theories with some true stories where I have been involved with cases concerning nasty women’s action against other women.

A MERE MALE

As a mere male, when I was younger I thought that women were “sugar and spice and all things nice”. However, working in Personnel / Human Resources (what’s the difference?) and especially when I specialised in Employee Relations, I soon saw what women are capable of at work.

Now that’s not to say that all men are angels and I know I could write another article about all the beastly things men can get up to at work. But for today I am going to concentrate on the ladies. One pet theory of mine is that women can be capable of as much beastliness and despicable behaviour as men, but are cleverer at masking their activities. Quite simply, they are masters, whereas we mere males are amateurs! I chose the word “master” carefully!

Another theory is that nowadays women are much bolder and more assertive than they used to be, and this “hardening” is spilling over into the working environment. I am all in favour of women protecting themselves against the pressures of this age we live in - and who can blame them when the newspapers and TV screens are full of unpleasant stories. Sometimes I think that Britain is like a giant pressure cooker, gradually building up steam.

I am sure that any trained psychologist reading this article could add lots of other reasons why women are becoming tougher - all I know is that they certainly can be exceedingly horrible to members of their own sex. Let me tell you a few true stories, and all of them I have been involved in, first hand, during the last 13 years I have managed my career consultancy.

THE COUNCIL SUPERVISOR

By the time I was asked for my professional help, my client, a 26-year-old clerk in the Finance department of a local council, had already been sacked for allegedly fiddling her flexitime - stealing time, and therefore unearned salary, from the council. She had appealed against her dismissal and I was bought in at the eleventh hour to act on her behalf.

I asked her to organise a “round robin” amongst her work colleagues. They had all seen how horrible and vindictive the female supervisor had been towards my client, but were all too scared to put their heads above the parapet and speak up in her support. The round robin protected them and so they all signed it.

In essence the supervisor had picked on my client from the beginning (why?) and had made her working life a misery. She had been the victim of constant and unwarranted criticism from the supervisor, who had ostracising her and treated her as if she did not exist. I do wonder how the supervisor would have felt if the boot had been on the other foot.

I also photographed and measured where my client lived, as this evidence would illustrate that the supervisor had been lying about how she had “caught out” my client.

On the day of the appeal the supervisor was on holiday in Cornwall and so she had to break off her holiday and return to attend the appeal. In the event she was not called to give evidence and so sat on a hard stone bench for two hours, just waiting. Rough justice I thought.

I presented my evidence and case summary to the city councillors and they retired to consider their verdict. My client was reinstated back into employment and was paid for the time she was unemployed, waiting for the appeal hearing. The Finance Director was incandescent with rage at the appeal decision, although my client was reemployed in another department. Within three months the female supervisor and her manager had both resigned from their employment. More rough justice.

THE SECRETARY

One of my male clients asked me to help his wife, who had just been sacked from her job as a Secretary with one of the UK’s most prestigious companies. She was one of a group of secretaries in an office, but when one of her colleagues was promoted to become an HR officer, this lady had seemingly let her newly-found power go to her head. Now all her old secretarial colleagues were her target and she went out of her way to be horrible to all of them.

Why she should turn on her old colleagues is a mystery to them all, but turn she did. My client’s wife was eventually sacked on a trumped-up charge. On the “lets be as subtle as a brick in a pond” theory I wrote to the Chairman of this huge company, and copied my letter to the HR Director. I really went to town about the actions of this female HR Officer, and the repercussions were spectacular, as I had hoped.

The company hired one of Britain’s top legal firms to do battle with me. Talk about David and Goliath! Lots of correspondence flew between their solicitor and me, and in the end they paid off my client’s wife, who received many thousands of pounds to buy her off taking her case to an Employment Tribunal.

The horrible HR Officer eventually left her employment, but I would have loved to be a fly on the wall when her HR Director spoke to her!

THE TEACHER

A lady teacher comes to my office and tells me a story about how her newly-appointed Headmistress picked on her after just two days in her new job. How could the Headmistress have had time to form any opinion about my client after such a short time in her new job?

Well, it gets worse. The Headmistress has a habit of calling my client out from the class she is teaching and then rips into her when she gets to the Headmistresses office. All manner of unfair allegations are made and she is told she will be sacked. When I was an Employee Relations Manager, that was one thing I never did, as it illustrates that the person in authority has already made up his / her mind, and any subsequent disciplinary meeting will be a farce, as a decision to dismiss has already been made. What has happened to the concept of a fair hearing?

By calling my client out from her class (couldn’t any matter wait until the end of the class or the end of the school day?) the Headmistress effectively undermined my client and humiliated her in front of the class. Soon every time she was summoned to the Headmistress’s office the children would make ribald comments about “teacher’s been naughty again”. What an intolerable position to be put in.

My client is of the opinion the Headmistress did all these things deliberately in the hope that by putting unfair pressure on her, she will resign. Fat chance! The case continues …

RACIAL HARASSMENT

My client was from another country. She had two degrees, was multi-lingual, and a very tough lady. Her “crime” was to have skin of a different colour and so her colleagues ganged up on her, doing little niggly things that, in isolation, were not much, but collectively constituted racial harassment. Women on woman.

Blinds were altered to cause reflections on computer screens, and changed back when my client adjusted them. Nasty racial remarks were made against her. The manager turned a blind eye to all these type of events. The list of activities against her was considerable, causing her to dread going to work and when there, she was in constant conflict with these other women.

In the end I went with her to an hotel in Heathrow, met an HR representative, and initiated a course of events which culminated in her resignation and a substantial payout from her employer. Later we hear that actions have been taken to prevent a repeat of this blatant racial harassment. Shutting the door after the horse has bolted.

THE MALE’S VIEW

And still my telephone rings. From this article I expect I will now get stories from men who are being bullied by women bosses and colleagues.

I cease to wonder at women’s inhumanity to other women, and just accept that they are not all made out of sugar and spice. All I hear are allegations of intimidation, bullying, harassment, victimisation and scheming, from colleagues and bosses alike.

Why can women be so bitchy towards each other? Perhaps they are just best in a team of one after all?

The Career Doctor is Eric Hearn, Chartered MCIPD and Managing Director of Milverton Career Solutions Ltd, Ascot, Berkshire, UK.

Contact details:
Tel: 01344 624383
Email: milvertoncareers@btconnect.com
Website: www.careerdevelopment.co.uk