bullying in the workplace..

LegacyUser

This situation all started over 2 weeks back when a colleague of mine we'll call her Lisa was talking freely about another colleague, lets call her Annie (with whom i'm friendly with) , making an accusation that Annie was bullying her and I quote 'i'm not going to let anyone bully me least not her'.
Lisa said she was leaving from night duty and Annie didn't say goodbye and turned her head away when Lisa was saying goodbye.

Later that day Lisa stated she had a meeting with management to discuss the report of bullying. Just before this supposed meeting Lisa had come out of the bathroom dramatically asking me 'does it look as though I have been crying' at which I said 'no'.

I thought this was strange behavior, if I had a problem related to work then I would have dealt with it discreetly.

I then met Annie about a week ago and concerned asked her what had happened and had told her what Lisa was saying, Annie had known nothing about this.
Annie then went to Lisa and asked her why she was making accusations of bullying etc. and that was that.

This week I met Annie again and she said thanks for telling her and it wasn't the first time someone had said to her something similar, that two other people were concerned as well.

Last night I was on night duty with Lisa and I have never felt so uncomfortable working with someone before. I left the building crying.
Lisa would not talk to me, only when needed to work.
She didn't help with work tasks and I had to do a majority of the work myself. I cannot keep straining myself as I'm 4 months pregnant, we are nurses so a lot of lifting etc.
We were sitting in a room where I was sat in the middle of Lisa and another colleague, I was spoke over and never talked to.
As I left to go home I said goodbye to everybody and spoke to Lisa directly to say I was going and she would not look at me nor said goodbye.

I have to work with Lisa tonight and i'm dreading it. I never want to work with her again! I feel i'm going to have to sit on my own and do as many tasks as I can on my own and avoid her. This might look petty and I assure you in some sense it is because I don't treat people like this at all. There is no need for any of this at all but if this is the sort of person that I have to work with then I have to make the experience of working with her as bearable as possible.
I really don't want to go to management and discuss this situation because I don't want to draw attention to myself.

Has anyone had to deal with bullying before? what did you do? should I just carry on and not give the situation anymore energy?

Thanks.

Chinafoot

Firstly, the situation between Lisa and Annie has absolutely nothing to do with you and you made a very big mistake in repeating to Annie what Lisa had said. I think its fair to assume that someone, perhaps Annie, informed Lisa that it was you who had told her what was said. I appreciate that you are friendly with Annie but you shouldn't have opened your mouth tbh and the fact that others also told her has no relevance - they were also in the wrong. If Lisa is making an official complaint about Annie then you can be assured that HR/management/whoever will speak to Annie to get her side of things.

While there is no excuse for how Lisa treated you there is a good chance that she is simply angry at you for telling Annie what was said. There is a chance she'll get over it and it might be a bit soon to cry "bully". My advice to you would be to speak to her about it. Tell her that you don't want an atmosphere in work and would like for you both to be civil during working hours. See how she responds. If she gives out to you for repeating the conversation to Annie, apologise. If she continues to make life uncomfortable then keep a log of all incidents of her behaviour and speak to a supervisor. People like this get away with such behaviour because people are too afraid to challenge them.

LegacyUser

Lisa sounds like a very spoiled childish person. She makes a huge issue over being ignored by Annie, which I assume from Annie's reaction was just a simple misunderstanding. She expected management to step in over such a simple event yet she has no problem treating you the way she has been and expects nothing to come of it.

If she is making you that uncomfortable in work then you should definitely report her. Especially because she is not pulling her weight and making you do most of the work, that alone should be punished. She is being paid to do a job, not to stand by and watch you do it for her. You should consider talking to her first, but from the sounds of it I doubt it would solve anything. Given that you are pregnant especially, this is very much unneeded and unnecessary stress and you should get it sorted asap.

For the record I don't think you were wrong to mention it to your friend Annie. She had a right to know, those kind of allegations can really hurt somebody's reputation. If Lisa didn't want Annie to know it was her then she shouldn't have made such a public ordeal about it.