Maltreatment in the workplace is a common practice that can lead to many negative outcomes. For instance, as a new employee, I worked hard to ensure that I performed my job responsibilities to the best of my ability. Working overtime and going over and beyond to produce quality work was important to me. As a result of my hard work, I received recognition and praise from upper level management, and was even given a promotion within my first year. However, some of the senior team members were not pleased with the attention that I received, and they would spew malicious insults and derogatory words towards me. They would constantly demean my talents and work, and a few even fabricated complaints about my work ethics to try to get me fired.
Thus, the tension between myself and senior employees caused a lot of emotional and mental stress. Many nights, I would leave work feeling humiliated and hated by many of my co-workers because they felt that I was not worthy of my position. Finally, I decided to talk with upper level management and eventually I took the matter up with Human Resources, and I informed them of the harassment that I received by some of the senior employees. The human resource manager listened to my issue and I provided him with a letter with the names of the employees, dates and the type of maltreatment that was affecting my emotional stability and my ability to effectively perform my job.

Human resources scheduled a sit down with myself and the other employees to discuss the issue. Some of them denied that they had been harassing me and others had a history of harassment of new employees, and they were written up with final warnings. Overall, the meeting helped to open up communication between myself and the other employees, and were able to get an understanding of each other. The HR manager explained that the company had zero tolerance for harassment and discussed the consequences including termination if it persisted. After the HR meeting, the harassment ceased, and I was able remain in my position and continue to deliver top level performance.