# Do people get shunned at work like this?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-get-shunned-at-work-like-this/613414>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [February 20, 2012, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-get-shunned-at-work-like-this/613414 "2012-02-20T13:13:36Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 6

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![JohnT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnt/32/15048_2.png) [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 5:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-get-shunned-at-work-like-this/613414/101 "2012-02-22T17:48:20Z")

</div>

> [@kayaker](#):
>
> Befriend a 12th grader and get him to beat her senseless.
> 
> Worked for me.

Yeah, I think [these girls](http://0.tqn.com/d/kidstvmovies/1/0/y/6/bridge006.jpg) are for hire. 😉

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![filmore](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/7993a0/32.png) [@filmore](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/filmore)\
**Post date:** [February 22, 2012, 7:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-get-shunned-at-work-like-this/613414/102 "2012-02-22T19:05:13Z")

</div>

> [@jlzania](#):
>
> One woman got pregnant during my duration there and became even more of a bitch than she was before the hormones kicked in.  
> I was resposonsible for answering most of the phone calls and would either help the client myself or transferr the calls to one of them.  
> Amy reached a point where she would either argue with me or even refuse to take calls when the customer specifically requested her.  
> I’d have to get almost belligerent to get her to pick up the fucking phone.  
> I later discovered that the manager was fully aware the situation (he apologized during my exit interview) but just felt we should somehow work it out.  
> How do you work things out in a professional environment with someone that had the maturity of an 8th grader and a mean 8th grader at that?

This is a situation where a manager should get involved. Amy was not acting in a polite, civil, professional manner. A manager should get involved to correct Amy’s behavior.

That’s not the impression I got from the OP or kayaker. In those cases, I got the feeling the employee was upset because other people in the workplace were doing fun things without inviting her. The issue was not that they were impeding her ability to do work–it was that they were socializing and not including her. To me, that is not a required function in the workplace and not something a manager should get involved with. Now if the coworkers were openly discussing it in front of her or explicitly telling her she’s not invited, then the manager should step in to ask them to be more polite about when they discuss socializing if they are not going to invite everyone in earshot. But I don’t feel it’s part of the workplace that all coworkers be best friends and do stuff together.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Corcaigh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Corcaigh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Corcaigh)\
**Post date:** [February 23, 2012, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-get-shunned-at-work-like-this/613414/103 "2012-02-23T18:53:45Z")

</div>

Happened to me. I was new to the area and took a government sponsored training scheme “job” in a hotel, to get a foot on the employment ladder. First day there a woman took me under her wing, and showed me around, sat with me at breaks/lunch and all that sort of thing. On her day off, non of the rest of the staff would speak to me. I had to find my own way around, and sat by myself at breaks/lunch.

A few weeks later a managerial level person took me to one side and cautioned me to be wary when talking to that woman as she was a dreadful gossip and the other staff hated her. Apparently my sitting with her etc was seen by the rest of the staff as my being friends with her, and rendered me _persona non gratia_. The managerial person moved me to another area/different shifts, so that I could mingle with other members of staff and loose the stigma of being the “Queen Bee’s Bestie”, which worked.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/do-people-get-shunned-at-work-like-this/613414.md?page=5)