By Isake Tom

They scheme. They backstab. They manipulate. And yes they can be referred to as bitches! Unfortunately for some of us this has been our experience dealing with the office bully. For women who’ve suffered through these harmful episodes, they aren’t surprised that the co workers hell-bent on making their lives at the office miserable are usually other women.

We’ve all heard the stereotypes about women in the workplace; they’re indecisive, overly sensitive, catty and worst yet; cry babies. Perhaps we can add the word bully to this list?

Some female readers may take offense to the above statements, quickly citing that this has never been their experience.  To those women, I assure you the data backs me up, and I encourage you to please read on.

I’m not saying that men are immune to bullying, as they can be some of the biggest perpetrators or victims. However the stats have shown that women are more likely to intimidate colleagues in their workplace especially when dealing with their female peers.

A recent study conducted by the Workplace Bullying Institute found that when examining the prevalence of verbal abuse, misuse of authority and job sabotage more than 70 percent of the time, female bullies directed their anger at other females. Male bullies were nice enough to spread the “love” around, equally targeting both men and women.

Think Tyra Banks and Naomi Campbell. While their career choice never had them working in an office, the infamous 14-year feud between the two supermodels only ended in 2005 with a public reconciliation on Tyra’s talk show.

Through her own testimony, Banks described years of catty remarks, lost modeling jobs and feelings of fear, intimidation and anxiety, towards a Naomi whom she alleges bullied her and worked to destroy her budding modeling career. While we can’t excuse Naomi’s vicious behaviour, we can think of her as a woman who felt her position as the world’s top black supermodel, threatened by an up and coming, youthful, and fresh faced Tyra Banks.

The alarming truth is not all female bullies are sociopaths; some are loving wives, mothers, and care givers who fall prey to hurtful bullying tactics, when confronted with what they deem as a loss in authority or position. Bottom line; hell hath no fury…. well you know the rest.

Many women who have gone through these experiences often choose to remain silent, too afraid to speak up for fear of being perceived as weak or worse yet, to preserve a false sense of “sisterhood” amongst their female coworkers.  Sadly, simply ignoring the office bully won’t make them go away. This sometimes works to their benefit, as most don’t stop until the victim either leaves, or their work performance is severely affected.

Editor of HrMorning.com and human resources expert Jim Giuliano suggests documenting instances of foul behaviour and approaching HR or the offending individual (or in some cases individuals) with your evidence, letting them know that their behaviour is on file and you are not afraid to take action.

Ladies despite what we see in the media it’s not necessary to destroy another woman to get ahead in this world. The only way we can truly succeed in a workforce that already favours our male counterparts is through genuine unity and mutual respect for one another. With so many obstacles blocking our paths to success and equality, let’s not be the ones standing in each other’s way.

As workplace communications expert Peggy Klaus suggests, “let’s start treating one another not worse or better, but simply as well as we already treat the guys — or better yet, the way we want our nieces, daughters, granddaughters and sisters to be treated.”

Tell us.  Is there an office bully at your workplace?  How do you handle the “other” woman?