Or Hardly Working: Cliquefest

Cliques are becoming an annoying but growing trend in my office bldg. I hate the way grown men and women feel the need to form groups with the sole purpose of excluding others. The way it works here, is that people congregate by workgroup.
The most annoying of them are the customer service cronies. I didnt pay too much attention to them until they began gathering in the employee breakroom area during lunch.

Don't get me wrong. I dont mind people developing friendships in the workplace, but when they begin to make others uncomfortable, then I do have a problem.

Anyway, back to the workplace gathering:

There's only one room on the entire floor where you can get a snack or drink from a vending machine, sit down for a spell and use the microwave. The CS clique has decided to boguard the room for more than an hour every day. They take up all the seats at the table and make it really uncomfortable to stay in the room while my frozen lunch is heating in the microwave.

Why is it uncomfortable? Because every time I walk in, they pause their talking and then turn and stare at me as I take my food out of the freezer. Once I place it in the oven and walk out, they begin talking again. Its really weird and unsettling.

I thought I left highschool behavior behind, but I guess I was wrong.
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Harassment in the Workplace

When workplace harassment is mentioned most automatically think about sexual harassment. It’s not always sexual and may not always have to do with the opposite sex. However, what about physical harassment? Whether it’s someone giving you a hard time without cause or someone that has a problem with you on a personal level it just might be harassment.

I was a temporary employee at a former job and while I had access to the building that I worked in, I was not given an ID badge. Temporary workers were not required to have ID badges at that location. One morning I was walking up to the building and a woman that I’ve seen in the building that I work in held the door open for me. Thinking this was a kind gesture I thanked her only to be questioned by her about my ID badge. I explained to her what floor I worked on and that I was a temp, which would explain why I didn’t have an ID and showed her my building access card. This obviously was not good enough for her because she continued to question me as if someone such as myself could possible work there.

At that point, I became annoyed as I was standing in the rain being questioned by someone on a power trip who was also blocking the entrance. I told her that I already explained where I worked as well as why I didn’t have an ID and walked passed her towards the elevator. She followed me into the elevator up to my floor. She even had the audacity to follow me into my office suite through the employee entrance after I specifically told her visitors are required to go through the front door. She ignored what I said and walked through in an attempt to find my manager. My manager wasn’t in but when I did explain the situation to her she was livid.

After all was said and done the woman tried to lie on me to save herself by accusing me of pushing her at the front door. When I brought it to her attention that there was a camera facing the front entrance she changed her story and said it happened in the elevator.

So what do you do when it becomes your word against someone else’s?

1. Document the incident.
2. Bring it to a manager or department head.
3. File a complaint.
4. Notify the other person’s manager or supervisor.