burbgirl

I don't know. Now that I think about, she has done this to others before. Let me think...4 or 5 other women. No men. Maybe it is sexual. I don't know how though. She's a married woman, with a child. She has an extremely strong personality. I have been asking the people who are telling me about things she has said why they think she has targeted me. Many say that they think she is jealous, but I don't know what of. She called me a hag, which I assume means she thinks I'm ugly. You should see her, she looks like the spawn of Ronald McDonald and Pat from SNL. Maybe she's jealous because she's unattractive, I don't know. I hate to sound petty, but this lady has tortured me enough to warrant a little return nastiness. I have friends at work, but maybe in a different way than most people. I tend to not spend much time at all with them except maybe at lunch and outside of work. I have far to much WORK to do to be chatting all day. Anyhow, I think that she targets people that she feels don't have a good support system, which would be me, I guess. I'm generally alone and aside from a casual greeting, not talking to anyone. I think it makes me an easy target. I think that she thinks that I don't have any friends, which is one of her "themes" to torment me with. I don't know, it does hurt my feelings to think that someone would think me to be so isolated and disconnected that she could do this to me without social repurcussion.

Thank you Ash for your helpful reply. It sounds like a good idea to get the policy myself. That way I know what I'm working with. I have investigated the legality of this sort of behavior. Apparently, it's not illegal to be a world class jerk. There is something called intentional infliction of emotional distress (IIED), which sounds about right for this situation. Unfortunately, IIED is usually for employees who are being emotionally distressed by superiors, which is not the case here. Also, unless the inappropriate behavior is linked to some sort of gender or racial issue that will affect my employment, forget it.

Thank you to all who replied. I am extremely stressed about this matter. Today she compared me to this woman in the news who killed her three children and herself. She said people like us (myself and the murderer)should just put a gun to our own heads and kill ourselves, not other people. I think her aim is to make me snap, and being human, one of these days I will. I just acted as if she wasn't there, only pausing for a second while I digested being compared to a murderer and being told to shoot myself in the head. I am an adult, a normal member of society, I never thought that situations like this would be a part of my life, especially at work.

For the past 6 months, this woman that I work with has been harassing me. I am also a woman. We are essentially on the same level, although our jobs are completely different. My job requires me to physically move about the office a lot, and I come into close proximity to her for several hours a day. This is unavoidable. I hope this post isn't too long. She started by yelling at me and telling me that I was in her way, she doesn't like me, and if I'm so great why is "such and such" not the way it's supposed to be. She has called me an ###hole, screaming while she told me that I am a hag, that she can't understand how someone can stand to look at me for more than two minutes, and said my husband is probably sick (he was ill at the time) because he has to look at me all day. She is currently tormenting me by yelling "YAY" incessantly, at least five to ten times a minute. "Yay, I'm so happy I'm not miserable all day, yay, here comes John, yay, here comes Jane". I am sure she is doing this for me because other employees have approached me and told me that she said something to them about how it bothers me that she does this (It bothers everyone!). Before the "YAY", it was "oh poop". Like most normal people, I do have friends in the office, and some of them have said that she has approached them and asked them how they can like me, etc. I am not the first person she has done this to. She has called me a crybaby, and told me to go ahead and run to management. This is extremely stressful to me. I could go on and on about the remarks that are made between her and her co-worker that are obviously directed towards me, and backed up by my coworkers who have heard her say she does it to bother me. I have talked to management about this, and they say there is nothing that can be done, because she knows how to work the system. I have kept detailed, dated notes on all of her negative and harassing behavior towards me. This is totally humiliating, infuriating, and degrading for me to have to put up with this behavior. I completely ignore her, always...however, it is so upsetting to me I start to visibly tremble, but I never cry. It is virtually impossible for me to do my job when I am around her. What do you think?