HR Manager Unsure How To Deal With Worker Who Puts ‘Curses’ On Co-Workers She Doesn’t Like
"She considers herself something of a witch and has literally been cursing people."
insta_photos | Shutterstock.com The HR manager for a school district admitted that it’s not uncommon for team dynamics issues to make their way up to her. There are a lot of people, personality types, and stressors that oftentimes don’t mesh.
“I’ve learned how to deal with workplace bullies and insecure people who feel the need to undermine the reputations of their peers in order to make themselves look better,” she wrote in a post to Alison Green’s “Ask a Manager” forum. “But, this is a bonafide threat against an employee.”
The HR manager is unsure how to deal with a worker who puts ‘curses’ on co-workers she doesn't like.
“I’ve recently been contacted by a supervisor in our company who has heard that one of his subordinates has been regularly ‘cursing’ both him and his daughter, who works for our company,” the HR manager shared.
While the act of “cursing” — not language, but rather “magic” — is controversial to the average employee, the added context behind the story has every professional on the forum waving red flags.
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“By ‘cursing.’ I don’t mean using foul language,” she added. “I mean, she considers herself something of a witch and has been literally putting curses on these people.”
After learning that colleagues were scared by this woman’s ‘threats,’ she asked for advice on how to deal with the ‘curses.’
As the co-workers this woman is targeting are starting to feel uncomfortable despite not subscribing to “the idea of magic” at work, the HR manager must now deal with the situation. But considering there’s no rule book for managing “witches” on the job, she’s eagerly anticipating Green’s advice.
“There are four cleaning staff working at the school … Mandy has, for whatever reason, decided that she hates two of them [Jeff and Whitney]," she elaborated. "She’s bad-mouthing them to staff, bullying others into ‘joining her’ in her hatred, and maligning them to other staff.”
After school administrators attempted to address the toxic work culture this employee was causing, they reached out to HR, hoping they could mediate the situation before things escalated further.
Whether you believe in magic curses or not, this employee was threatening others. She said something along the lines of "When people make me angry or cross me, I don’t worry because I have ways to get rid of them … I know how to do it."
After needing to take sick leave for an illness for the following two weeks, the father and daughter are reasonably feeling unsettled, to say the least. “She’s looking up ways to ward off curses online," she wrote of the daughter. "They’re afraid to work with this woman.”
Whether it’s bullying or a true threat, she’s unsure of how to move forward, especially without knowing the true validity of this woman’s claims. Of course, if your employees are feeling unsafe — to the point where they’re considering leaving their roles — there's obviously a problem leadership must address.
HR experts suggest she opens a conversation with the worker, giving her a ‘last warning’ for threats at work.
Despite being equally shocked and unsettled by the write-in, Green and other HR experts urged this manager to have a conversation with the worker immediately. If you don’t create a paper trail and address these kinds of issues at work promptly, they will only grow more intense and problematic.
“It’s a threat, and that’s not acceptable,” she started. “Normally, I’m a big fan of managers handling performance problems on their staff themselves rather than looking to HR to do it … but in this case, since she’s putting curses on her manager.”
“I can see an argument for you having a one-time meeting with her and her manager and jointly laying down the law," she advised. "Tell her clearly that it’s not acceptable to threaten to curse or otherwise harm anyone she works with, that threatening people with harm — regardless of the means — is grounds for termination.”
In addition to giving her a “last warning” for threatening people with harm, she suggested reminding the worker that bad-mouthing and gossiping about peers is unacceptable.
Lastly, Green reminded the HR manager that setting her team up for success means sticking her ground with warnings — going back and forth, giving too much grace, and “getting caught up in a long series of warnings” will only ensure you lose your best employees and set a toxic standard for your atmosphere at work.
“I’d assume that you’re going to need to end up letting her go fairly soon because good employees just don’t operate this way,” she added. “I’m highly skeptical that she’s a stellar performer on every other front” if she’s spending her time bullying peers.
Zayda Slabbekoorn is a News & Entertainment Writer at YourTango who focuses on health & wellness, social policy, and human interest stories.