Why Giving In To Office Drama Can Be Deadly To Your Career

There comes a point in every woman’s working career when she will experience some amount of drama in the workplace. Whether it’s just simply gossip or it's full-fledged open hostility, no doubt your self-esteem and your morale at work are affected. With each passing month or even year, it becomes harder to stay positive and productive at work.

You’ve become preoccupied with what people are saying about you rather than a looming deadline. You start loathing the work day ahead of you instead of feeling energized. Maybe at one time you thought of your co-workers as your friends. Possibly, you got a promotion while your co-worker didn’t and then you became adversaries. Maybe you’ve addressed this with your boss but to no avail. Whatever the drama may be, your future at your job could be starting to look hopeless.

Believe me I’ve been there. I mean besides simply being a female, I was a cheerleader in high school and I was in a sorority in college. I’ve encountered enough drama to easily fill two lifetimes. No matter the situation, the solution is to move on. Be proactive and don’t suffer in a bad situation when you truly don’t have to. That could mean moving on from your job to another or simply moving on from the drama at your job. If the situation at work absolutely becomes unbearable and your gut feeling is to move on, you should. You would be better off working in a more tranquil environment. But for those of you who want to simply move on from the drama, here is why you should.

When your job becomes tedious, you usually start to console yourself with the idea that at least it’s a paycheck allowing you to make it through one more day. That is one habit you should immediately break. You need to look at your work as more than a paycheck. A paycheck can be easily achieved, but a career must be won. A career is worth fighting for and you won’t get there being caught up in petty fights with your coworkers. It’s your livelihood.

Take pride in your work and in yourself. Know that the people who try to bring you down don’t matter! If they are insecure that is their issue. If the girl in the cubicle next to you thinks gossiping is more important than working, she obviously has unhealthy priorities. There is no excuse for unprofessionalism. Bottom line, if they let their insecurities affect them at work, then they probably don’t care about their career at all. Remember that and go on with your life.

Finally, let me kindly remind you that the year is 2013. In 1873, 140 years ago, the Supreme Court case decision of Bradwell v. Illinois stated that women could not apply to the Illinois state bar. This meant that women in Illinois were not deemed fit to be lawyers. Yes, there were laws endorsed by the highest court of our country that barred women from an entire profession. It has also been 93 years since the 19th amendment was ratified, ending gender discrimination in voting. You may be wondering what does this have to do with me? It has everything to do with you because you have everything to do with the future of female employment in this country.

Obviously, women have come very far in society despite the obstacles in our path. Women are now employed in almost every kind of profession there is. With this in mind, it seems very self-destructive to bring each other down at work. The advances we’ve made won’t mean a thing if we destroy each other from the inside out. As modern women, we have privileges our great-grandmothers could only dream of. Since we have those privileges we shouldn’t waste them by sabotaging each other.

There is no room for that in 2013 and especially not in the workforce, period! Women have so many more obstacles to overcome as we break the “glass ceiling” in the business world and close the pay gap between us and our male co-workers. We won’t ever get there unless we cut each other some slack!

Samantha Nelson | Elite.