Women can be brutal to each other in and out of work.

Sometimes I feel like I’m still in high school even though I’m in my early 40s. This is due to the way I’ve been treated by certain women in my professional and personal life. Bullies from junior high and high school often grow up to become bullies in the workplace (as well as outside of work), resulting in many of us finding ourselves in situations that are unfortunately similar to our dark days of adolescence. The worst part – these mean girls are much stronger and vindictive.

Every single one of us has mean girl tendencies from time to time.

Sometimes it’s due to peer pressure. Sometimes it’s because something about them makes us feel bad about ourselves. I’m certainly not proud of it but I can own up to it. Why are we mean to other women when we should be supporting other women and having each other’s backs?

When a woman feels threatened, insecure or just dislikes another woman, she can engage in damaging actions, such as backstabbing, gossiping, purposely excluding someone from a meeting or social functions, sabotaging, taking credit for someone’s work or helping to push someone out of a job or a social circle. Maybe you’ve experienced some of these behaviors by another woman in the workplace or even in your personal life. Please know that you aren’t alone.

I call this the dark side of female relationships.