Its been awhile and I'm sorry this isn't an update · 5:17am Oct 23rd, 2019
I know i haven't been active in a long while, but one thing I appreciate about this community is that it's a safe anonymous space and i have a small situation I'd like y'all's take on.
I work at a small company, as such hierarchy can get a little muddled but even so there are 9 people whom are senior staff. For all the usual reasons, proximity etc, they can be kind of a clique, which isn't ideal but also not a huge problem.
Except that as part of thier clique they have a private slack channel where they do things like make social plans (who cares) and shit talk people. The added wrinkle is that because we have company laptops that are not exclusively thier property, and because it's easy to forget to sign out of slack some people have seen the channel and some of the things that have been said by the senior staff about others.
A few bits of info for context: While some of the critcism could be loosely interpreted as job related a lot of it was just high school mean girls level nastiness. (I don't know if they said anything about me)
Despite the above these 9 people aren't bad. They're uniformly nice in person etc. It has been bought to our bosses attention and consquences are reportedly coming, but also since nothing's been publicly adressed, this issue still lives in the shadows.
So that's it in a nutshell. Any words of wisdom?
A decent boss (as in, one who realises what this could escalate into) would take this as Workplace Bullying.
My sister had it so bad when working for an international company that even after going through HR (who sympathised) she still quit. Her boss was a "mean girl".
High school bitching and gossiping is easy to detect. And being on technology, rather than person-to-person (which was how my sister copped it) will make it VERY easy to detect.
Don't let it be swept under the rug.
Good to hear from you, though I wish it were under better circumstances.
My supervisor talks pretty poorly about one of my coworkers. While the coworker in question is a bit problematic at times (often spends more time playing on his phone then pay attention to the stuff we're making), that my supervisor is so quickly able to speak negatively about him makes me worry what she says about me when I am not there.
A constant state of mistrust and doubt about your coworkers is not a very healthy place to work. I'm not sure if bringing it to light will help more than hurt though; is open teasing better than silent contempt?
You've intrigued me with this quandary.
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Thanks for responding. It's already been reported, I'm just waiting to see the fallout. (I didn't report it, in part because I've never actually seen the slack channel, I've just been told of it's existence. )
I guess my quandary is, when this comes out, as it's due to, do I act the same, because the senior staff and I have always had a good relationship in person, or do I call them out on it?
I suppose I can wait an see what their forthcoming apology looks like.
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As for the quandary ?
I say be wise and wait.
Someone has already made a move. Just let that take effect.
If things were really bad, then it may be acceptable to approach that person (after their chat with the bosses) and remind them that they should back off. But given the situation, That may not be desirable at this time. Too inflammatory.
EDIT:
By the way, seeing your name pop up in my Feed inspired me to re-read your Three Gems and a Scooter. Such a good story.