I'm being sabotaged

page 6, Five ways to battle the office backstabber

If the actions of your devious office-mate are putting your productivity on the line, then you are being sabotaged and you need to put a cease and desist on the malicious worker.

“It's helpful to first understand whether there is in fact backstabbing going on. It may be your own paranoia,” says Dattner. “As the saying goes, 'just because you're paranoid, it doesn't mean they're not out to get you.' You may need to confront the person and let them know that you're on to them,” he advises.

Karen Young, a news editor at a large consumer publication found much success in the editorial content she produced. Week after week, her articles found themselves on the home pages of major portals sites like AOL and Yahoo, which brought her praise from her boss and even the company's CEO. Her colleague, Matt was also an editor, but his articles were yet to be syndicated by any portal content partners. One day, he took Karen to the side and confided to her that other co-workers were making fun of her behind her back, “No one here likes you,” he said. He went on to tell her that he thought that perhaps she had some “mental defect.”

This is a classic example of job sabotage. A co-worker engaging with another in such mean-spirited and work-depleting dialogue serves no positive purpose other than to upset and disrupt the successful colleague from continuing in her productivity.

“I was horrified. How can a colleague say I'm mentally defective if I'm bringing the company's Web site traffic into the millions,” Young says. “It's just not appropriate. Clearly, he was just jealous of what I was accomplishing.”

To combat overt offenses from co-worker saboteurs, here is what Dattner suggests.

“Gently let the offender know that what they are doing is hurting them more than it's hurting you,” he says. Ideally, your boss will stand on your side when you bring this up, but Dattner admits that especially in the corporate environment, “backstabbing is the rule rather than the exception.”

Still, if you're in good standing with your managers and the kind of offenses imposed on you are egregious enough to hurt your productivity and the company's bottom line, a wise boss should work with you to put an end to unethical behavior at work.

Because in the end, if you like your job and you're good at what you do, why should someone else deprive you of opportunity to climb the corporate ladder of successes?

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For more articles from Ji Hyun Lee, please check out:

The Politics Series:  The Politics of Facebook Friend Requests from Your Colleagues | The Politics of being a Woman on the Job: Why can't we all just get along? | The Politics of Being Young on the Job: Managing the Kid Boss

The Lists: Five Signs that Your Good Looks are Working Against You | Five Ways to Battle the Office Backstabber | Ten Signs that You Might be a Difficult Employee

The 101 Info Series: Bosses 101: What makes someone a bad boss? | Office romance 101: When is it a do and a don't?

Everything in between:Tips for managing the Millennial Generation | When You're Smarter than the Boss | Knowing When to Speak Up and When Not to |Equal Work, Unequal Pay: What to do if You're the Victim of Gender Discrimination

Do you need advice dealing with awful coworkers, bosses and other workplace issues?   Find the author on Twitter @JiHyun42 or email, jihyunnyc@gmail.com, and tell her all about it.  You could be featured in an upcoming article!