Group factions and cliques within a workplace can create noticeable division, often leading to decreased team morale, productivity issues, and a tense environment.
Workplace Drama
After some time working within a corporate setting, I decided to take an in-depth look at this to understand how factions ultimately begin, and I learned some valuable lessons. In fact, I took note that one such group formed almost overnight and eventually became a point of contention and great concern for me. It was such a bothersome concern that I kept a journal of my observations.
When the group formed, it was more like a clique – a female and four male coworkers. The bulk of the male coworkers were new to the job. So it made sense for the female to assist them in gaining their bearings. Overall, they seemed to be coworkers who just clicked well together, and there didn’t seem to be anything off about their comradery.
Although I didn’t think much of the dynamic in the beginning, the clique took on a more noticeable role on the team in which I was assigned to work. At first, I was grateful to have all of the members as a part of the team. We all collaborated so well together, and the males made the tasks of dealing with heavy loads much easier to handle.
However, over time, attitudes changed and assistance became more laxed and unbalanced from this group of men, including the female. Less time was spent by them actually working, and more time was devoted to socializing. Instead of being of great assistance, they’d become an intolerable nuisance and distraction. Soon afterwards, I took note of a dramatic shift in their behaviors and actions towards the rest of the team.
I took note that this dramatic shift occurred after I’d returned from having days off from work. I figured that something must have occurred that I didn’t know about because the shift was so pronounced that all of the members of this new clique had changed in the way they spoke to me, if they even spoke to me at all. They seemed to only speak to me when team leads were present. Otherwise, they were silent and distant.
Although I wouldn’t say that the female coworker and I were friends, we were friendly towards each other and had pleasant surface conversations. I didn’t see her as an enemy even though I was careful and watchful since she was triangulated against me when the narcissistic leader of a bully group I refer to as the mobsters, first launched her narcissistic attacks against me.
When it came to workloads, the male members of the clique spent more time helping the female coworker over helping the rest of the team. At first, I thought I was the only one who recognized this shift, but it was actually noticeable to everyone else on the team too, including the mobsters. The leading mobster, a narcissist I refer to as Damsel in Distress, and one of her flying monkeys began complaining to me about the newly formed clique and how they slowed down work progress for the team.
In my earlier times of experiencing mobbing from the overall group, the female coworker was the go-to for conversations when Damsel and one of her flying monkeys wanted to have an ally on their side to drown me out from being able to effectively communicate with them. Yet, over time, this female coworker became somewhat of a leader of this new clique of males, and I had first surmised that this may have occurred because she and the male coworkers bonded over their similar backgrounds, but I didn’t know for sure.
I also wondered if this new clique came out of the female coworker’s own need to protect herself from the mobsters too. I wondered if on the days that I was not at work whether the mobsters either singled her or one of her clique members out for the purposes of their narcissistic attacks. In hindsight, there was no known reason for the shift aside from possible drama that may have taken place on my days off.
However, I did notice the dramatic shift in behaviors directed from this new clique, and although I wouldn’t liken their behaviors to the behaviors of the mobsters, I would say their techniques at gaslighting were top tier and a way to make them appear as elite workers to team leads, coaches, and managers.
For the most part, one of the male members of the group played a rather dominant role as a troublemaker. Every time he came around the clique, their behaviors instantly changed towards the rest of the work team. They seemingly distanced themselves from working with the rest of the team, and they’d time their breaks in synchronous moments so that it was clear that they were not working with the rest of the team.
It was as if the clique had an “us vs. them” mentality. The clique was the “us”, and the rest of the team was the “them”. Interestingly, not only did other coworkers who were a part of the work team complain, but the mobsters who were a part of the team complained too. There was the general feeling that the rest of the team was excluded from clique activities.
Since the men in the clique were responsible for assisting the team with tasks, they’d always make sure to divy up the best tasks for their female lead so that she got the best assignments while the rest of the team picked up the slack and completed the undesirable tasks. In fact, assignments that were actually allocated for me to complete would be directed towards the female lead of the clique to complete instead.
The male members of the clique also made sure that the female coworker’s work area was always free of clutter before they would attend to the areas of other coworkers. This caused a great amount of frustration for the rest of the team since having to work in such a tight space hampered abilities to complete tasks in a timely manner. Plus, such a work atmosphere also overstimulated me to the point that I had no choice but to sometimes walk away from my work area.
As a matter of fact, the clique participated in so much exclusive behavior that I frequently had the feeling that they were attempting to push the team out of position. Even though the female coworker didn’t directly participate in the undermining behaviors I experienced from the rest of her faction, I saw them as an automatic unit. The men around her would frequently gaslight me by switching tickets on items that I needed work to with to make it seem as if I was incompetent at doing my job. Once they realized that I figured out the issue that they created, they’d automatically solve the problem.
It wasn’t soon afterwards that I began paying attention to this clique’s routine of doing things. I’d soon discern a lot of their schemes were designed to keep the entire team off balance. It was obvious that they were intentionally sabotaging team efforts for successful completion of work tasks. Only if a team lead showed up would they appear as if they were the one’s saving the day. I found their actions to be diabolical, but it turns out that I wasn’t the only one who had begun to notice this.
Unfortunately, however, I didn’t trust everyone on the team. I had to keep in mind that most of the members of the team were people who didn’t originally want me to be a part of the team in the first place. In fact, the other half of the team, the mobsters, would only stand with me if they weren’t a complete unit on the days one of their members was absent from the group. Yet, even they, at individual times, had commented on this new growing faction within the team because the behaviors of this female coworker and the males had become that noticeable.
As responsibilities on the team changed, the female coworker and her male counterparts became more influential and began receiving what the mobsters even termed as preferential treatment. As a result, there was a lot of resentment and demotivation with everyone else concerning the work. However, as I took a closer look, I realized that what was perceived as preferential treatment was really not favoritism at all as the group was not treated any better than the rest of the team. They were just given more verbal validation.
This verbal validation didn’t mean more pay, but it definitely meant more work and perceived power. The perceived power led the female coworker and her male counterparts to believe they somehow had an advantage over everyone else. So, they began taking their breaks together more often, to the point that their overall absence when team leads needed them was definitely noticeable. Their absences during crucial work put into play that other teammates were actually carrying the workload overall, which actually placed this clique in a more negative spotlight, and I know they weren’t counting on that.
For a long time, I took note of how this group’s behaviors were allowed to go unchecked for quite a while. However, I also observed how this was the norm for factions in a general sense. It was only after situations were beyond what team leads and managers could handle were issues addressed, but by then, it was always difficult for them to manage or foster a unified approach to the work. The trust in the team leads and managers had already been eroded because the faction within the team had already been allowed to disrupt cohesion.
In fact, one team lead lost their cool with some of the members of the faction because they had come to see for themselves just how unproductive this faction had become with work overall. So once the team leads attempted to intervene to make changes, it was a little too late. It was also unfortunate that the team leads hadn’t heeded repeated warnings that something was amiss. In fact, I wasn’t even the only one who’d mentioned to team leads example situations of problems that had arisen within the team because of the faction.
Damsel, the leading narcissist bully over the mobsters, had even mentioned the issues caused by the new faction led by the female coworker. My immediate thought was that the faction created two dominant female leads even if the other female coworker was silent. Damsel wanted to be the one in control, but the four males paid her no attention. Unfortunately, even Damsel’s concerns about the factious clique were heeded a little too late to make much of a difference.
It was to the point that roles had to be rotated within the workplace to somewhat break the factious clique apart. One coworker on the team who was also once in a team lead position had been analyzing this clique’s behaviors as well and eventually reported all of her observations to a team lead. By then, however, the damage had been done by the clique, and management was required to intervene to promote a more inclusive work environment.
Once intervention took place, I can say the rest of the team, including myself, was relieved to be able to freely breath again. There were changes that occurred to break the factious clique apart, and those changes proved to be for the better. First, the schedule of the female coworker who quietly led the factious group was altered enough to where her presence on the overall team didn’t make much of a difference anymore.
Although the female coworker, who quietly led the factious clique, still worked on the same team, the clique was disarmed and disjointed from causing further problems. At least one team lead was always present to oversee the overall work of the group, paying specific attention to overall team dynamics. In this way, diabolical schemes by the clique would either be stopped in their tracks or prevented from occurring. Plus, a team lead’s presence would actually keep unbalance on the team from occurring because each member of the group was being held accountable for their work on the team.
Accountability was something I could readily get behind. In fact, I felt I could finally breathe a lot less toxicity within the atmosphere when it seemed that factions on the team were not allowed to run amuck. For the record, I like peace – not drama. Cliques often lead to gossip and undermining behaviors, which can stir unnecessary drama and negatively impact the work environment.
When people feel more loyal to their faction than to the team as a whole, it can fuel conflicts that detract from professional goals. Conflicts were something I noticed a lot of when some coworkers gathered into divisive groups. These divisive groups took away from the overall efforts of the team. I was so relieved when a team lead demonstrated how the entire group could work individually at their tasks but still work together to accomplish completion goals. Everyone had a part, and in the end, getting the work done in a peaceful manner was what really mattered in the team completing their goals.
Although the factions within the team weren’t completely dismantled, they were distanced enough apart to keep them from completely destroying the work efforts of the entire team. One team lead and a coworker had enough discernment to realize what I’d been seeing all along … that factions within the team were destroying overall collaborative efforts, and as long as the drama these factious cliques created could be kept at bay, the better the team could be at accomplishing its goals. I was so thankful that the right people saw what I saw and put a halt on some of the destructive group dynamics.
Stay tuned for more …
My Voice Unchained 