The more entrenched I get in the workplace, the more I realize that we never completely leave middle school. This is a very unfortunate discovery since I couldnt stand middle school or the first half of high school. Girls were catty towards one another in the worst possible ways. Gossiping and backstabbing were everyday occurrences. If you made it to college successfully, you somehow navigated the nastiness of middle school/high school and survived.

If you built up strong survival skills during that time, dont shelve them all together. When you enter the workplace as an intern, its possible you might need them. Best case scenario, you wont run into any dysfunctional co-workers at your internship. However, rarely is the workplace that perfect. Workplace meanies come in several different forms. You will run into know-it-alls, complainers, tattletales, gossips, critics, backstabbers, and bullies. Yep, theyre all there just like in middle school or high school. But when you meet them in the work world, you are meeting them as a more mature person.

How do you handle workplace bullies and the like at your internship? Here are some of my thoughts.

Discuss situations with your supervisor.

Your supervisor should have your back when it comes to dealing with a not-so-nice co-worker. While there are some workplace disfunctions that arent truly detrimental to your work well-being (like a know-it-all), other vicious behaviors should be challenged. If a co-worker is bullying you, discuss this with your supervisor. He or she will hopefully address the issue with the employee and might coach you in how to handle issues if they continue.

Build strong relationships as best you can.

In the workplace, you arent going to be friends with everybody. However, it is important to establish positive working relationships with your co-workers. Reach out and get to know your officemates. Be pleasant and friendly. If co-workers try to rope you into the latest office gossip, politely excuse yourself. Be judicious with your comments on the work of others. Its important to share your expertise, but its important to keep it from sounding like a critique of anothers work. Work with you supervisor on ways to incorporate you special knowledge into projects, and share with him or her your thoughts on how things might be done better. Sometimes, they might actually ask this of you before you proactively share. Its definitely one of the benefits of having an intern in the organization.

Do not retaliate.

As tempting as it might be to fight fire with fire, resist it. As an intern, you are probably going to be the one paying the ultimate price for bad behavior. You could be asked to leave or be fired, neither of which bodes wells for your future. Furthermore, retaliation is going to indicate immaturity, an image I hope most interns debunk for employers. Its true that other co-workers might fight dirty with one another, but it reflects poorly on their character. Just dont go there.

Of course, I hope that you never run into any bad workplace behavior thats truly terrible. Oftentimes, its little things that just get annoying. Over the years, you learn to deal with it, just like you learned how to handle it back in high school.

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