It doesn’t matter how old you are, you’ve likely encountered mean girls in the workplace. They can sabotage you, stab you in the back, hinder your success and generally make your life miserable.
I often wonder why some women are so mean to other women for no reason. Why do they see other women as a threat instead of lifting each other up?
For so long, some women in my professional and personal life have tried to sabotage me and undermine me without provocation.
I have been stabbed in the back more times than I can even count.
But I don’t let it get me down. I remove myself from toxic relationships and keep a much smaller circle.
I also educated myself about it, wrote about my experiences with mean girls and started Women Who Wow because I was tired of women seeing each other as adversaries and tearing each other down instead of lifting each other up.
They say that “haters gonna hate” so just keep doing your thing, and I try but it’s hard. As mean girls grow up they get even meaner.
But remember the issue is theirs. Something we do triggers feelings in them (likely jealousy and insecurity), which makes them feel badly about themselves and then they take it out on us.
When a woman feels threatened, insecure or just dislikes another woman, she often engages in damaging actions, such as backstabbing, gossiping, purposely excluding someone from a meeting or social functions, sabotaging, taking credit for someone’s work or helping to push someone out of a job or a social circle.
I call this the dark side of female relationships.
Mean girls triggers include;
- Jealousy
- Insecurity
- Feelings of competition and envy
- Makes them feel powerful to put down another woman who they consider a threat
Join Women Who Wow for an important webinar on January 18 at 12:30pm on how to navigate working with mean girls at work whether they are your boss or colleague. We will also cover how to deal with mean girls in your personal life.
PS – You CAN have great female relationships by surrounding yourself with women who inspire, encourage and challenge you and weeding out mean girls.