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The original was posted on /r/maliciouscompliance by /u/cjdubais on 2025-05-16 13:22:06+00:00.

So,

I was a contractor in a Government office. My background is extensive starting with multiple engineering degrees, and many years of designing, building and operation of Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROV’s).

There was constant personnel churn in the office, and the contractors were the corporate memory. It’s an interesting situation, I always likened it to a feudal society. Staffers (direct Government employees) were the royalty and contractors were the serfs. Sometimes it was bothersome, but the position paid very well, so that was some benefit. Most of the time, the staffers knew they were in way over their heads and gladly accepted our advice.

A woman staffer arrived one day as head of the department that managed our outside service contractors. Typically, I played a large advisory role in dealing with these folks as someone familiar with the industry and able to call bullshit if you will.

Well, this woman decided that I was conspiring behind her back with the contractors virtually on the first day there. Why, I never knew, but it was what it was.

Luckily I didn’t answer to her, I answered to a guy who in a former life was a member of Seal Team 6. Basically a trained killer, Great guy, he liked me a lot, and we got along well together. When the foo foo started, he pulled me aside and said, “document everything you do”.

So I did as he suggested. I had a notebook in OneNote that I would record whatever I did that involved this woman, including her increasingly anti-social behavior towards me. We would be in meetings, and not only would she not look at me, when I asked her direct questions she wouldn’t answer. Several times, this happened and then there was this dead silence until someone else spoke.

About this time we got a new division manager who was very… personnel “sensitive”. He was a PhD type in an operations role and completely out of his league, so he regressed to what he knew, making the office “kinder and gentler”. This was quite a challenge as we had an office full of ex-Navy types, and they weren’t exactly used to being “kinder and gentler”.

In a short period of time, the woman in question had skewered 5 other males in the office in her short tenure, with the result of them departing the office. Both staff and contractors. I would have been her 6th if she had had her way.

So, there was a lot of concern about my position. My boss was in my office one day talking about the latest anti-social behavior demonstrated by this woman. He made a comment, “boy, I wish I had documentation of all this”. I laughed, went to my computer and printed off a 20-page dissertation on all the stupidity. His eyes lit up. Come with me, he said.

We went into the office of the new director and my boss gave him my dossier. It took him a bit to read through it all. I had used the word “harassment” (which turned out to be the magic word) in description of many of the episodes. He said, I think harassment is too strong a word for this behavior. I asked him if a contractor was exhibiting this behavior towards a staffer, what would you call it?

He didn’t answer the question.

About a week later, the woman was reassigned to a different organization.

I always say, it’s not good to go head to head with a trained killer…

LOL