Here’s a newsflash: we women aren’t always very nice to each other. From our insecurities about our imperfections, to our competitive drive and anxieties over not measuring up, we can be total bitches to one another. A recent article in the Times suggests that this mean-girl mentality is the pink elephant in the workplace that no one dares talk about. “Despite all the money spent annually on women’s leadership conferences and professional development programs, you’d be hard-pressed to find a workshop on women mistreating one another at work,” Peggy Klaus writes, adding: “Instead of helping to build one another’s careers, [women] sometimes derail them — for example, by limiting access to important meetings and committees; withholding information, assignments and promotions; or blocking the way to mentors and higher-ups.” If these scenarios sound familiar — and they certainly do to me — you aren’t alone. A recent study by the Workplace Bullying Institute examining this kind of office behavior found that “female bullies aim at other women more than 70 percent of the time.” Keep reading »
