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Women gossiping at their desks in the office.
(Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.)
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Compliments and insults are usually very different. Easy to identify and often made clear from the source, it's rare that a fun-lighthearted comment can be misinterpreted as hate, but in the case of the two female coworkers in this next story, it wasn't so obvious.
One of the employees was excitedly wearing her hair in a new way to the office, but she never imagined that braiding her hair on a new side would garner the eager attention of her colleague, the soon-to-be office mean girl, in the cubicle next door. She haughtily approached Ms. Braids and told her that her hair was looking remarkably thin in its braided state, feigning shock to be stoutly cruel, but the insult flew right over the other girl's head. Knowing her hair was genuinely quite thin and not seeing any reason to hide that, she didn't see this as a diss, but as a blunt comment.
She retorted with a clever comeback without even realizing it. Uh-oh…
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Her naive counter-insult stung the mean girl so much that it started an all-out war in the office, making what started as a misunderstanding into an all out blacklister social dilemma.
Luckily, the employee with braids in her hair was just as good at unweaving office politics as she was weaving her thin hair into artful styles.
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Two female coworkers talking at their desks in the bullpen.
(Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.)
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In girl world, stories like this can sometimes end in an amicable office friendship. However, because the mean girl's pride was so hurt by the “Twinning” comment, she dug her heels in like a stubborn mule and refused to budge until the boss was present. As if a conversation between adults about a unmalicious misunderstanding needs to have a referee present…
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Businesswoman getting left out at the office.
(Image is representative only and does not depict the actual subjects of the story.)
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Childish office drama doesn't always need to be met with HR reports and management intervention. If they could come together to find a solution, that would be the simplest course of action, but since the mean girl was so unwilling to own up to her own insult, the braid-haired colleague had to seek out some workarounds to the office politics.
Once again, the internet provides excellent advice, and the folks of the online forums and the backalley backer-bars were glad to help! Working with management on both ends proves to be the best way forward, and because the braided-haired employee had no ill will towards the mean girl, there should be no reason for retaliation.
The level-headed response helped the braided-haired girl out this time, but hopefully she won't need to employ her newfound peacemaking skills any time soon.
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