Problem with coworker

I work in a warehouse. The department I work in, our desks are close to each other. There's a particular woman that I have to work with sometimes. Let's call her "Nicole".

Nicole is not a pleasant person to work with. She talks way too much. She often brings up inappropriate discussions that I thought everyone knew not to talk about at work, like sex related things. One of the sex things she was talking about, it was so disgusting I actually had to walk away from my desk so I couldn't hear her. She knew this particular topic upset me, and proceeded to talk about it anyway with others while I was there. She talks very bad about others. It's a variety of things - someone is lying about doing work; she has an offensive nickname for a coworker she doesn't like; she likes to put down one of her son's ex-girlfriends that he hasn't been with in years.

A particular incident involving me and this coworker happened earlier this week. It hurt my feelings and it's the last straw. Let me tell you what was happening when she said something hurtful to me. I was having trouble with something in our computer system. The woman who is responsible for reaching out to the IT department requested help for me. Let's call her "Sarah". It was taking the IT department a long time to respond to the problem. I simply had thought Sarah filled out the request form wrong (corporate had changed our IT ticket system and it's more difficult to fill out now and sometimes it gets redirected to IT help at another facility instead of our own). Like I said, I thought she had filled the request form out wrong. It turns out Sarah did it right and she was not the problem. I admitted this.

Nicole then says, "it's because you think you're smarter than everyone that works here". I was very shocked when she said this. This was coming from a person that has also accused Sarah of being a liar and not doing her job right in the past. I've helped Nicole numerous times with her work, ranging from very easy to difficult.

I don't want to work with Nicole anymore. I don't want to speak with her anymore. I don't want to be near her anymore. I don't think I should have to help her with her job. She has been there much longer than me and should know how to do it by now. Why is she frequently asking the "thinks she's smarter than everyone else" person for help?

I've wanted to report her to HR, but here's what's stopping me - retaliation. I know HR will take the complaint seriously, but I work with people that also gossip and may retaliate against me. I've seen it happen to others in the past - when there's a legitimate issue reported to HR, then the complaint gets gossiped back to other workers and they retaliate.

What should I do about this incident?

I'm hoping she will be fired soon over another issue (she also has poor attendance and is very close to pointing out). I don't know if I should go ahead and report to HR or do something else. I want peace at work - I don't have it because of Nicole. I want to focus on my work, not a trouble-maker.

Thanks.

I've been thinking about asking my boss to move me to a different area of the department for the sake of my peace.

He'll want to know why and most likely ask if I want to take my complaint to HR.

timf said:

Your supervisor may not even be aware of the problem. It is sad but often supervisors may have little idea about what is happening in their departments. If this is the case, you can explain the situation, but not in great detail. Your supervisor may want to report it to HR, but fear the reflection it might on his ability. Sometimes you can cut a face saving deal such as a transfer for training purposes or to help with workload.

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I believe that you are right about my boss not being aware of the problem. He is aware of an incident in the past between me and this other coworker that caused issues. He gave me the option to report it, but I wanted to resolve the issue with the coworker myself (and we did resolve it).

I know there's other parts of the department that do need help, so it would not be too much of an ordeal to move me.

joymercy said:

HR people find out and its not kept confidential?

Big red flag that this place is not healthy, and anything you say gets gossiped about?

Quietly, start looking for a different work place, as this seems so toxic that you cannot get relief by following the right steps even.

Also, a transfer to a different department or to a different branch perhaps, however, the gossip seems very pervasive in this company.

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I know. It's a bad place to work. In my opinion, corporate needs to do an "undercover boss" investigation because there's still bad workers to get rid of. I've even heard rumors about a particular troublesome long-time worker in leadership having the ability to blackmail others in order to keep her job. Big corruption.

I have been looking at jobs on and off.


I'm glad I have the needed support on this forum.

I thought I'd let everyone know that I did report her to HR. There was another incident this week and I decided that was enough and I had to take action.

She ended up being fired, but for something else. But my report to HR was taken seriously and they have it on her file against her.

But I'm glad she's gone.