How to deal with subtle harassment and retaliation at work?

All that advice above is reasonable but realize, this is a tough job market – she might have to suck it up. If those guys are pals with the supervisor or even HR, there’s a risk she could get the boot for political reasons. I would play it as cool as possible. If she chooses to talk to anyone be as cool as possible and not risk getting on the outside of the office political group.

Oh man…well playing it subtle wouldn’t work for me. They are not only completely disrespecting her they are going out of their way to MOCK her reasonable request. Can you spell infantile and narcissistic?
Time to pull out the big guns. I’d go to the CEO too, let the children take their lumps accordingly, this is BULLYING and NOT acceptable,

I’m far too real and bold to play those passive aggressive games. Your girlfriend needs to take a FIRM stand against these immature bullies, let the chips fall where they may.
If it were me I’d directly confront them in a diplomatic but no nonsense manner and let them know of they can’t handle a reasonable request that I’ll take it to upper management.
She MUST take a proactive and assertive stand. That is BULLSHIT!

This is called workplace bullying and employers have a duty of care to do something to protect their employees from this type of harassment. Is there an HR department in the organisation she works in? It doesn’t sound like a small company from your brief description? I would take it to someone in the HR area. I would also suggest putting her concerns in writing if necessary. If she is forced into a position where she does not feel safe and comfortable working, I would be pretty sure she could take legal action if the company does nothing about it.

She has taken the right steps so far. She asked the fellow employees to be considerate, talked to her supervisor about the concern, and has now asking for the assistance of HR. This is an issue that can wait until Monday. Calling the CEO will cause him/her to pass the problem back to HR. While it will surely result in some type of follow-up to the resolution of the problem, it’s only going to embarrass and most likely cause resentment in all of the other parties involved.

The thing is that verbal harassment of any sort is hard to prove unless there are witnesses. Otherwise, it becomes a ‘he said/she said’ scenario. My advice is that she wait until Monday to talk to HR. Not only may they give her proper guidance, it creates a note in their records. I would also recommend that she alert her supervisor out of courtesy that she is doing so. Depending upon where she lives and who she works for, harassment of any type is not something that is taken lightly.

Document the shit out of it all and go after them, with HR.

Have her talk to an attorney that specializes in workplace harassment. If it’s gone this far it isn’t going to get any better. Then she’ll know her options and alternatives.

If HR told her to wait until Monday and she calls the CEO directly instead, she’s not going to like the result.
Give HR the opportunity to do their job.

Document every single thing. Most everyone has their own personal video camera in their phone. If it gets bad enough maybe post it to U- Tube, see if it goes viral. Of course use an account that was set up just for that.

When they are being particularly rambunctious have her call herself on the phone and let it go to voice mail. That way she can record their noises, conversations and cat calls. Save the message and forward one copy to HR as proof. Also start making recordings with a portable device like a Sandisk Sansa, Itunes, etc. Tell no one – until you need it.

Document everything. When she talks to HR she needs to mention the “hot” word – harassment. It can still backfire on her depending on who is buddies with whom, but since it has reached the point she doesn’t want to go to work it sounds like it would be worth the risk.

What a bunch of bullies, ugh. I’m sorry she’s having to deal with this, it’s ridiculous!

She should wait and talk to HR on Monday, and you should definitely not get involved (beyond supporting her efforts and comforting her, of course). One other thing that might work is her having a conversation directly with the bullies. They are acting like children, but may not realize how upsetting it is to her. Is it possible for her to sit down with them and tell them they are making her work life very unpleasant? To ask them, one adult to another (well, a group of others), to please let it go already?

She should do all the reasonable, above board things mentioned above after she makes the recording. Help her get set up this weekend. Don’t wait.
She’ll feel so empowered walking into work on Monday she’ll be hoping for harassment. Give her the tools.

I think the issue in this thread is essentially the same as this one. Interesting how different the responses are.

When I found myself in this situation at work (a cubicle environment, where everyone perforce must live with a lot of ambient noise) and spoke to my manager, saying that the excessive noise was a productivity issue for me (and others nearby who were bothered but afraid to complain), she told her manager. And he was the one who would then walk by me talking loudly, making exaggerated shushing noises, and making overly audible wisecracks about having to be quiet because he was afraid to disturb anyone, thus inviting others to join in the mockery and the loud conversation.

That’s truly pathetic @Jeruba. I hope you didn’t have to work in that environment for long.

About seven years under that guy. When the company offered an early-retirement incentive, there wasn’t much to hold me back.