When co-workers ostracize you

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what do you do when your co-workers ostracize you? do you report it? does it improve the situation ?

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What is the basis of your observation?

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what do you do when your co-workers ostracize you? do you report it? does it improve the situation ?

Do you honestly believe that REPORTING someone for "ostracizing you" is going to IMPROVE your situation? Think it'll make them want to take you into the fold?

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I was always told that if you have to report something, you had better have done your homework and have a well-thought out solution in mind and be ready to offer that solution.

Why are you being ostracized? Does this affect patient care or safety?(Nobody comes to help you if you are in trouble, for example)

How do you know you are being left out?

If you are, how bothered are you by it anyway?

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Specializes in Nursing Professional Development.

Reporting it rarely helps -- unless the bully is alreay unpopular and people are looking for a documented reason to get rid of her. If she/they are popular and powerful, it probably won't help. You'll have to figure out a way to get in their good graces. Is there some senior level person (staff nurse, educator, etc.) that you can confide in and get good advice from? It would have to be someone who knows the people involved and good help help you assess the politics of your specific situation.

Is there any danger or patient safety risk involved? Are they actively doing things that hinder you in your job or make it a hostile work environment for you? Or is it just that you are not included in the social structure of the unit? These points make a difference in how it should be handled.

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Specializes in Trauma Surgery, Nursing Management.

OP, give some examples of the way you feel bullied. We can help you a lot more if we knew more about your situation.

YES, there are steps you can take, but more information is needed first.

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It is one thing if they are excitedly discussing their weekends, and grow silent when you come into the nurse's station. It is quite another when they let you fend for yourself in the weeds when a patient is going down fast.

The first one, whatever, you need to have a life and friends outside of work, and if they wanna be petty and give you the silent treatment, do your job, patient's first, then leave it all behind at the door.

If it the second, then yes, it is an issue that needs to be addressed, specific to the incident in which it occured.

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CAUTION my friend. It has the potential to make things worse! It could inflame an already toxic work environment to the point where you have to leave. Definitely address it if it impacts patient care though.

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Specializes in FNP, ONP.

I'll tell you what I tell my children. To have a friend, you have to be a friend. Being a tattle tale, as in "so and so is being mean to me" is not going to make you any friends. Now, if it is a serious ethical or safety issue, that is entirely different. But if they are just unwelcoming, it is going to fall upon you handle it like an adult. So, no, if it simply that you are being left out of social situations from the workplace, you don't report it and it wouldn't do any good if you did. What you do do it maintain a friendly, professional demeanor, do you job, and go home, back to the people that matter. That's it.

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Specializes in Oncology/Haemetology/HIV.

Please give us concrete examples of what you mean by "Ostracized"?

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