Study: Women often bigger workplace bullies than men

SALT LAKE CITY -- It's a time of stress and anxiety in many offices, and tempers may flare, but it may surprise you to hear women can be just as bad, or even worse office bullies than men.

Women bullies can be passive aggressive or outright mean. Employers Council CEO Monica Whalen says the cat fights and moody female co-workers happen.

"A lot of times when there is a stereotype like ‘women can be catty' or ‘working in an office of all women is a nightmare,' when you have some stereotyping around attitudes, often times it's because there is some truth to the root cause of that," Whalen said.

A survey by the Workplace Bullying Institute shows 40 percent of workplace bullies are women and they target other women 70 percent of the time. "Women can be hard on other women. I think there is some truth to that," Whalen said.

She says in these times of increased stress and instability and worry, it can bring out the worst in people. "Perhaps it comes from this sense of ‘I had to fight so hard to get where I'm at;' ‘I'm hard on myself. I also tend to be hard on others;' [or] ‘I insist that others do the same to maintain that hard-won turf that we have now gained,'" she said.

Whalen says women can be criticized for being too hard or too soft. "My advice for women is just be who you are. Be yourself, and come across with a tone an approach that feels comfortable for you," she said.

But she says women can also be great colleagues. She is the CEO and has nine employees; eight of which are women, and they love it.

"If you have a woman in a leadership role, you can often have greater understanding of what other women are going through, sort of this idea of walk a mile in her shoes," Whalen said.

Whalen herself was a single mom and had to balance work and home, so she has greater understanding of struggles they are dealing with.

E-mail: mrichards@ksl.com