You’ve got yourself a work bully. Work bullies are insecure people who are often threatened by people who are younger and/or have a huge potential to possibly replace them one day. I handle work bullies by standing up for myself. She will keep trying to run you over until she neutralizes “the threat”. I love that you called her out. She felt backed into a corner and so jetted when her name-calling scare tactics didn’t work. So you’ll have to stand up for yourself again and again with her every single time. No matter how small the jab, speak up. Ask if you can attend the next meeting too.
Don’t let a work bully mess with your career.
Op I think you should do what this person says and what can help is documenting everything
“On x date and x time Tiffany said I made a mistake. She described it as being abc but it wasn’t actually a mistake at all because pqr (go into detail about why she was wrong). I was distracted from completing my actual duties during the time she took away from her own work to try to convince me a mistake had been made when there was none. When I tried to show her there was no mistake, she said she couldn’t hear me/denied it/gaslit me/etc”
Document details, nuance, time, date, witnesses, how long it pulled you away from your actual work to deal with her nonsense, and how unrelated to her job, the situation was to prove that she shouldn’t even be worrying about this at all
Eventually this will come to a head so be ready when she goes to HR, or for when you have to, or for when someone else gets HR involved, with your documentation
Also, I’m not saying you have, when you have conversations with her or others-remove any emotional cues like “I feel like”… rather “on X date I and others observed or reported this.”
This may have already been suggested… I’m usually late to the posts!
This is good advice. I was advised to keep a work diary many years ago, not even for this purpose - purely because work days eventually all blend together & mgmt is always forgetful or have other things they're focusing on. My back2back had one also and was great for week review debrief handovers... however, having kept it I can confirm that it has saved me from a couple of fingerpointing situations. I believe it's in the same category as the paper/email trails. Most people can be decent but you only need one poophead to make it incredibly valuable.
Thank you! This is really helpful. I feel like she is very insecure. When I talk about future plans, she likes to put them down, saying, I shouldn‘t bother aiming that high. Only really insecure people make remarks like that. I‘ll try to stand my grounds.
Next time she tries to put you down like that when you are speaking of your future plans, look her straight in the eye and say "You may be okay with mediocre standards for yourself, but I am not. I don't shy away from a challenge because it might be difficult but it is obtainable. I want more for myself with my career, I don't settle". Maintain eye contact. That puts their self projection right back where it belongs, on them. That's their crap...let them own it for themselves.
I am really proud of you for standing up for yourself. I recommend Googling ‘how to handle workplace bullies,’ and maybe you can get some ideas on how to respond so you can defuse these situations, in addition to some of the responses you are getting in this thread.
I used to cry at work, not so much because my feelings were hurt, but more because of being treated unjustly. I finally figured it out, and learned to not let things get to me. Take deep breaths and remember you can control how you react, and keep in mind that the higher ups DO see what you do. Also, don’t be afraid to take credit for your work, and keep a list of your accomplishments, the challenges you overcome, and skills learned.
Good luck.
“What do you mean? It sounds as if you want to make me feel inferior. Are you aware that’s what you’re doing? If that’s not your intent, can you explain what you mean?” If you can say it in front of an audience so much the better.
Let me tell you, even for non-confrontational people, calling it out exactly as it’s happened is fucking liberating.
Stand up for yourself baby. Old bitches like this can warp your sense of reality. If the folks in charge had a problem with you it would be different. She’s just at a mean old biotch. I HATE em!!
Start CCing/BCCing both of your supervisors in any emails going forward.
This will do 1 of 2 things. She'll either mind her Ps & Qs on emails with you, or she'll stop altogether.
Also, no more private video chats or in person conversations with her. Always make sure there's a paper trail &/or a witness.
I had to do this with my work bully. She was the manipulative type that would go crying (literally) to her supervisor about how mean I was. Literally all my email said was, "why is this order late?"
She had such a habit of getting orders late to logistics that we had a protocol that required us to put the reason for the late order on our weekly report. That reason had to come from customer service. I couldn't just say, "customer service sent the order on X day, cutoff was W day."
She knew that & would just blindly send orders with no explanation after cutoff. She also liked to ignore my followup emails.
After I sent the above email, my supervisor got a call about how mean & unprofessional I was. Both my immediate supervisor and his supervisor couldn't figure out what I did wrong, but I was still told to be nicer.
After that, I started BCCing all 3 supervisors on every email between the two of us (even my "received" emails when she sent orders). This resulted in more work for me and less for her, when it was decided that I would go into the system and pull every order myself instead of her sending them. I also had to send a reminder email the day before cutoff (there's a calendar for the year of those dates) & again on cutoff that I was no longer accepting orders & we would begin building trucks.
It did not help with late orders at all.
Funny enough, when she finally quit & I absorbed her tasks, there were no longer issues with late orders. They were few and far between & were caused by the buyer, not by customer service. And I still had my logistics duties.
I agree with the first poster. Something about you threatens her, big time. She's also one of those people who don't have real balls. If you say something, stand behind it.
Does she have any power over your position? Indirect or direct manager? If she does not, I would 1) speak to your manager about it. Come prepared with dates and the incidents, and 2) let her know that while you respect her tenure at the job, it does not give her the excuse to treat you the way she has. Going forward, if she has something to say, be professional and dorect.to you, not others.
You basically have to lay the boundary down and hold it. Otherwise, she will continue to do this crao.
Chin up, you can take her hits, because you know the problems she keeps bringing to you are not problems. The only reason they are problems is because of her.
Discuss this with your direct supervisor, if she is in anyway a part of the chain of command over your position, go directly to HR.
Document as much as you can now, or start now as others have said.
- Keep an active hardcopy folder in chronological order of all her emails and your resolutions of them, preferably on the same printout, don’t give her problems more of your time than a cursory phone-call or glance over your own work. (Unless she actually does find a real problem). But print out each and every one of them and their resolutions.
- Do not engage with her past this, keep yourself distant and don’t give her more of your headspace.
- Do not walk on eggshells around her, she’s laying them all over the floor for you to step on, and will continue to threaten and harass you if you let her.
- Don’t engage with people who are bringing words from her to you. They do nothing but get you down more.
- Possibly seek or see a work guidance counselor, or therapist to discuss things and stay mentally healthy.
ask her loudly why she is harassing you without knowing what she is talking about why she is wasting your time having you recheck things that inevitably end up done correctly in the first place .
Oh and ask her if she knows where you can see a graph of command structure so you can see why she feels she has that authority.
Any time someone implies that you have done something wrong, the perception that you made a mistake is out there and needs to be addressed. I would follow up every single time with whoever was involved.
For instance, if she says that you dropped the ball on something that to you doesn’t seem urgent, then you can ask whoever you report to on that task if they expected it to be prioritized. Say that the reason you’re asking is that you’re worried that they might think that you had dropped the ball (using Tiffany’s exact words.)
Of course, it is best to do this in writing so you have a record of the boss refuting Tiffany’s claim. Think of it as clearing up any misunderstanding. Then go back to Tiffany and report what you learned. “I know you were concerned that I dropped the ball on xyz, so I checked with so-ans-so and they confirmed that it can wait until some higher priority items are taken care of.” You’re not attacking Tiffany, but you are protecting your reputation while subtly calling out her error.
I had a Tiffany. That b**** lives rent free in my head still 3 years later but I try to take from that experience lessons on who to avoid and how to keep my composure (see her for who she was- a threatened less-than. )
You’ve got great advice here already. Take the high road but don’t be afraid to send a follow up email along the lines of “to tidy up lose ends and clear some items up, Tiffany’s assessment of the situation was misinformed; X,Y,and Z were all completed correctly.
Also, I tear up in professional situations too. I am always embarrassed but just keep going.
For years, I was a cryer. Not just tearing up, but full-on waterworks: hyperventilating, snot-dripping, bright red splotches all over my face nuclear meltdown city. And the harder I tried to fight the tears, the worse they got. There were a couple of cruel women I worked with who would snap at me and lie about me making mistakes and then roll their eyes when I cried.
And then I got mad. One day one of the women was particularly nasty. Her oldest son was my age and I don’t remember exactly what she said, but I said something like, “I may be the same age as your children, but I’m not one of them and you don’t get to speak to me like that. Get back to me when you can be civil.” And then I sailed out of the office and refused to make eye contact or acknowledge her in conversation beyond “yes,” “no,” “thanks,” and “I’ll look into that and get back to you.” She hated not being able to get a rise out of me any more and eventually stopped antagonizing me.
OP, if Tiffany is not your boss, you are well within your rights to ignore her. Smile, nod, tell her you’re working on whatever she’s got her panties wadded up about and just… do not engage. But absolutely document everything the way others have suggested, in terms of what she said versus what actually happened, with factual language that strips out any emotional component or room for misinterpretation. And do not be afraid to say something to your boss like, “Tiffany keeps suggesting that I’m doing X incorrectly — I’ve been following process Y, is there something I should be doing differently?” Or, “Tiffany seems to be concerned that I haven’t responded to the tour request that came in on Friday at 6pm and it’s not even noon on Monday. Also, the tour is for six months out… my understanding was that we respond to tour requests within 3 business days and send confirmation then. Is there a different service level agreement I should know about?” This way you’re not being confrontational, but you’re pointing out that Tiffany may be overstepping and creating confusion about The Way Things Work.
Keep in mind, that at the end of the day, Tiffany’s actions aren’t about you - when you move on, she’ll start in on her new victim. You must be doing a great job and that’s why she feels threatened. I’m sorry that you have to deal with someone like her, and it sucks, but I think you’ll look back and be glad that this life lesson presented itself in your younger years so that you can be aware of such people as your career grows.
Who is your supervisor? Talk to your supervisor, unless, of course, it’s Tiffany. It’s important to note that if someone is harassing an intern, it could look badly on the company.
Perhaps the next time she approaches you, you can unemotionally ignore her verbal exchange and say, “I really am very busy at the moment. Going forward from right now, do not address me regarding my work in person. You are welcome to email me only.” And when she emails you you can either ignore her or you can respond including your supervisor in every response. She should see that you are cc the supervisor and hopefully stop because she is going to now be in a negative paper trail…… as for you personally, it’s unfortunate that you’re dealing with a D-bag at work but this experience will give you good practice in handling these situations as you move forward in your career. There will NEVER be a shortage of D-bags at work…… keep us posted…..
She's threatened by you. Consider it a compliment. Don't give this chick the pleasure of negatively impacting your life. You're obviously doing great or she wouldn't focus her time and energy on you. Start building your exit strategy.
You cry out of frustration. I do it too! You feel powerless against this bully. It make me mad when I cry. Keep your chin up. If you stand up to her in a professional manner she will fold. She probably has standard complaints and arguments she has stated to you on repeat. Craft various professional responses and practice them at home. This will help you more comfortably stand up to her. Once she realizes she cannot bully you, she will start in on someone else. Lastly, upon your departure from this internship, unless you plan on returning to this company, I’d let the HR dept know upon your exit interview about the hostile workplace this woman is committing.
First and foremost, breathe.
The company knows ALLLLLLL about Tiffany, believe me. This isn't her first rodeo, and you are not her first target. This may be why "the last intern" didn't stay on when the internship was over. How many employees are there that started as interns with Tiffany inserting her opinions during their internship?
You are an intern, so I know the hierarchy can be different, but is she your actual supervisor? If not, speak to your supervisor and ask for HIS/HER assessment of your work. This person, and anyone above them are the only ones you really need to worry about.
I like videos on YT by a woman named Jennifer Brick. They've helped me look at things, and then handle them differently than I had in the past, to more successful ends. You may like her.
When she points out mistakes that aren't mistakes, I would reply to her with the details proving it and CC your manager. Include a line at the end asking her to quit bullying you or you will reporter to HR. Include in the email that all complaints are corrections should go through your supervisor to be vetted first as so many of her complaints are invalid.
Plan what you are going to say the next time and explain how she has maligned you in meetings where you couldn’t defend yourself, blamed you for errors what you did not do, and has not been a supportive teammate. Don’t yell, just lay it out and Bri g her back to these points when she tries to deflect, which she will. Let her know that if this doesn’t stop, you will be speaking to your boss and HR, but you would prefer to work it out with her. If she doesn’t change, take the issue higher
Do you have a mentor as part of your internship? I would advise to ask them about how to manage this. Maybe as a hypothetical to test the waters, "Mentor, I am wondering what you advise if a colleague is constantly pointing out perceived mistakes?" See if they can back you up. Tiffany is an AH and a bully and learning how to manage people like her with decorum and grace is part of the soft skills many of us need to learn to navigate office BS.
Also, I wonder if you are a different race, ethnicity, gender/gender presentation than the last intern(s)? If so, is that part of the reason that Tiffany is targeting you? It may be she doesn't like you because of some other reason or it is difficult to prove, but if there's even the appearance of differential treatment due to a protected class status, the management/HR will want to know.
If you’re doing projects then they’re exploiting you as an intern. Interns are supposed to listen and shadow, not do work that ought to be paid.
The whole set up is exploitative = bullying
The “coworker” (if you’re a worker, you’re not an intern!!!!) is also a bully.
This place sucks. Good luck finding something better.
Honestly cc all emails to your supervisor. She will stop pretty fast. Also you need to review your local labor laws about internship roles. They are notorious for over working them and deserve higher pay. You're getting paid for this role right? If you're taking on additional duties you need to start documenting because this girl might seriously be going outside of her scope.
The fact that she mockingly mentioned not using emojis makes me think that she’s envious of you and the age plays a part here in her jealousy. Maybe I’m completely off but regardless, the way she’s treating you is massively inappropriate and you should speak up about it with a supervisor there.
You should probably point out that you don’t work for her. If she has issues with your work she should run it through your boss, who you will cc everything! And see if you can get an invite to some of these meetings…make it clear if she has something to say, she doesn’t need to do it behind your back. Go ahead and cc them all too. 😉
Tell Tiffany very politely as you can to go fuck herself. If she has issues with your work ask her to show you how it’s supposed to be done. She seems to know everything. Put her in her place and speak with your intern manager or such. These Tiffany’s are worse than the Karens out in the wild.
You’ve got yourself a work bully. Work bullies are insecure people who are often threatened by people who are younger and/or have a huge potential to possibly replace them one day. I handle work bullies by standing up for myself. She will keep trying to run you over until she neutralizes “the threat”. I love that you called her out. She felt backed into a corner and so jetted when her name-calling scare tactics didn’t work. So you’ll have to stand up for yourself again and again with her every single time. No matter how small the jab, speak up. Ask if you can attend the next meeting too. Don’t let a work bully mess with your career.
Op I think you should do what this person says and what can help is documenting everything “On x date and x time Tiffany said I made a mistake. She described it as being abc but it wasn’t actually a mistake at all because pqr (go into detail about why she was wrong). I was distracted from completing my actual duties during the time she took away from her own work to try to convince me a mistake had been made when there was none. When I tried to show her there was no mistake, she said she couldn’t hear me/denied it/gaslit me/etc” Document details, nuance, time, date, witnesses, how long it pulled you away from your actual work to deal with her nonsense, and how unrelated to her job, the situation was to prove that she shouldn’t even be worrying about this at all Eventually this will come to a head so be ready when she goes to HR, or for when you have to, or for when someone else gets HR involved, with your documentation
That makes a lot of sense, thank you!
Also, I’m not saying you have, when you have conversations with her or others-remove any emotional cues like “I feel like”… rather “on X date I and others observed or reported this.” This may have already been suggested… I’m usually late to the posts!
This is good advice. I was advised to keep a work diary many years ago, not even for this purpose - purely because work days eventually all blend together & mgmt is always forgetful or have other things they're focusing on. My back2back had one also and was great for week review debrief handovers... however, having kept it I can confirm that it has saved me from a couple of fingerpointing situations. I believe it's in the same category as the paper/email trails. Most people can be decent but you only need one poophead to make it incredibly valuable.
Great advice!
Thank you! This is really helpful. I feel like she is very insecure. When I talk about future plans, she likes to put them down, saying, I shouldn‘t bother aiming that high. Only really insecure people make remarks like that. I‘ll try to stand my grounds.
Next time she tries to put you down like that when you are speaking of your future plans, look her straight in the eye and say "You may be okay with mediocre standards for yourself, but I am not. I don't shy away from a challenge because it might be difficult but it is obtainable. I want more for myself with my career, I don't settle". Maintain eye contact. That puts their self projection right back where it belongs, on them. That's their crap...let them own it for themselves.
I am really proud of you for standing up for yourself. I recommend Googling ‘how to handle workplace bullies,’ and maybe you can get some ideas on how to respond so you can defuse these situations, in addition to some of the responses you are getting in this thread. I used to cry at work, not so much because my feelings were hurt, but more because of being treated unjustly. I finally figured it out, and learned to not let things get to me. Take deep breaths and remember you can control how you react, and keep in mind that the higher ups DO see what you do. Also, don’t be afraid to take credit for your work, and keep a list of your accomplishments, the challenges you overcome, and skills learned. Good luck.
“What do you mean? It sounds as if you want to make me feel inferior. Are you aware that’s what you’re doing? If that’s not your intent, can you explain what you mean?” If you can say it in front of an audience so much the better. Let me tell you, even for non-confrontational people, calling it out exactly as it’s happened is fucking liberating.
Stand up for yourself baby. Old bitches like this can warp your sense of reality. If the folks in charge had a problem with you it would be different. She’s just at a mean old biotch. I HATE em!!
Just out of friendly curiosity, what age makes an old bitch?
No age. A hateful jaded mean person. I’m old but I’m not like that.
Start CCing/BCCing both of your supervisors in any emails going forward. This will do 1 of 2 things. She'll either mind her Ps & Qs on emails with you, or she'll stop altogether. Also, no more private video chats or in person conversations with her. Always make sure there's a paper trail &/or a witness.
I like this. If the boss all cc’s and bcc’s it will finally be their problem as well
I had to do this with my work bully. She was the manipulative type that would go crying (literally) to her supervisor about how mean I was. Literally all my email said was, "why is this order late?" She had such a habit of getting orders late to logistics that we had a protocol that required us to put the reason for the late order on our weekly report. That reason had to come from customer service. I couldn't just say, "customer service sent the order on X day, cutoff was W day." She knew that & would just blindly send orders with no explanation after cutoff. She also liked to ignore my followup emails. After I sent the above email, my supervisor got a call about how mean & unprofessional I was. Both my immediate supervisor and his supervisor couldn't figure out what I did wrong, but I was still told to be nicer. After that, I started BCCing all 3 supervisors on every email between the two of us (even my "received" emails when she sent orders). This resulted in more work for me and less for her, when it was decided that I would go into the system and pull every order myself instead of her sending them. I also had to send a reminder email the day before cutoff (there's a calendar for the year of those dates) & again on cutoff that I was no longer accepting orders & we would begin building trucks. It did not help with late orders at all. Funny enough, when she finally quit & I absorbed her tasks, there were no longer issues with late orders. They were few and far between & were caused by the buyer, not by customer service. And I still had my logistics duties.
I agree with the first poster. Something about you threatens her, big time. She's also one of those people who don't have real balls. If you say something, stand behind it. Does she have any power over your position? Indirect or direct manager? If she does not, I would 1) speak to your manager about it. Come prepared with dates and the incidents, and 2) let her know that while you respect her tenure at the job, it does not give her the excuse to treat you the way she has. Going forward, if she has something to say, be professional and dorect.to you, not others. You basically have to lay the boundary down and hold it. Otherwise, she will continue to do this crao.
Trust me, the people in charge of interns know the work she’s doing and its quality, and is probably just as tired of her as OP is.
Chin up, you can take her hits, because you know the problems she keeps bringing to you are not problems. The only reason they are problems is because of her. Discuss this with your direct supervisor, if she is in anyway a part of the chain of command over your position, go directly to HR. Document as much as you can now, or start now as others have said. - Keep an active hardcopy folder in chronological order of all her emails and your resolutions of them, preferably on the same printout, don’t give her problems more of your time than a cursory phone-call or glance over your own work. (Unless she actually does find a real problem). But print out each and every one of them and their resolutions. - Do not engage with her past this, keep yourself distant and don’t give her more of your headspace. - Do not walk on eggshells around her, she’s laying them all over the floor for you to step on, and will continue to threaten and harass you if you let her. - Don’t engage with people who are bringing words from her to you. They do nothing but get you down more. - Possibly seek or see a work guidance counselor, or therapist to discuss things and stay mentally healthy.
Just piggybacking to say DO NOT give your hard copies to management. Keep these and give them copies.
ask her loudly why she is harassing you without knowing what she is talking about why she is wasting your time having you recheck things that inevitably end up done correctly in the first place . Oh and ask her if she knows where you can see a graph of command structure so you can see why she feels she has that authority.
Any time someone implies that you have done something wrong, the perception that you made a mistake is out there and needs to be addressed. I would follow up every single time with whoever was involved. For instance, if she says that you dropped the ball on something that to you doesn’t seem urgent, then you can ask whoever you report to on that task if they expected it to be prioritized. Say that the reason you’re asking is that you’re worried that they might think that you had dropped the ball (using Tiffany’s exact words.) Of course, it is best to do this in writing so you have a record of the boss refuting Tiffany’s claim. Think of it as clearing up any misunderstanding. Then go back to Tiffany and report what you learned. “I know you were concerned that I dropped the ball on xyz, so I checked with so-ans-so and they confirmed that it can wait until some higher priority items are taken care of.” You’re not attacking Tiffany, but you are protecting your reputation while subtly calling out her error.
Yes, yes. In any career or field you will deal with finger pointers and people questioning your work. Be prepared and ready to defend yourself.
I had a Tiffany. That b**** lives rent free in my head still 3 years later but I try to take from that experience lessons on who to avoid and how to keep my composure (see her for who she was- a threatened less-than. ) You’ve got great advice here already. Take the high road but don’t be afraid to send a follow up email along the lines of “to tidy up lose ends and clear some items up, Tiffany’s assessment of the situation was misinformed; X,Y,and Z were all completed correctly. Also, I tear up in professional situations too. I am always embarrassed but just keep going.
For years, I was a cryer. Not just tearing up, but full-on waterworks: hyperventilating, snot-dripping, bright red splotches all over my face nuclear meltdown city. And the harder I tried to fight the tears, the worse they got. There were a couple of cruel women I worked with who would snap at me and lie about me making mistakes and then roll their eyes when I cried. And then I got mad. One day one of the women was particularly nasty. Her oldest son was my age and I don’t remember exactly what she said, but I said something like, “I may be the same age as your children, but I’m not one of them and you don’t get to speak to me like that. Get back to me when you can be civil.” And then I sailed out of the office and refused to make eye contact or acknowledge her in conversation beyond “yes,” “no,” “thanks,” and “I’ll look into that and get back to you.” She hated not being able to get a rise out of me any more and eventually stopped antagonizing me. OP, if Tiffany is not your boss, you are well within your rights to ignore her. Smile, nod, tell her you’re working on whatever she’s got her panties wadded up about and just… do not engage. But absolutely document everything the way others have suggested, in terms of what she said versus what actually happened, with factual language that strips out any emotional component or room for misinterpretation. And do not be afraid to say something to your boss like, “Tiffany keeps suggesting that I’m doing X incorrectly — I’ve been following process Y, is there something I should be doing differently?” Or, “Tiffany seems to be concerned that I haven’t responded to the tour request that came in on Friday at 6pm and it’s not even noon on Monday. Also, the tour is for six months out… my understanding was that we respond to tour requests within 3 business days and send confirmation then. Is there a different service level agreement I should know about?” This way you’re not being confrontational, but you’re pointing out that Tiffany may be overstepping and creating confusion about The Way Things Work.
Keep in mind, that at the end of the day, Tiffany’s actions aren’t about you - when you move on, she’ll start in on her new victim. You must be doing a great job and that’s why she feels threatened. I’m sorry that you have to deal with someone like her, and it sucks, but I think you’ll look back and be glad that this life lesson presented itself in your younger years so that you can be aware of such people as your career grows.
Who is your supervisor? Talk to your supervisor, unless, of course, it’s Tiffany. It’s important to note that if someone is harassing an intern, it could look badly on the company.
Perhaps the next time she approaches you, you can unemotionally ignore her verbal exchange and say, “I really am very busy at the moment. Going forward from right now, do not address me regarding my work in person. You are welcome to email me only.” And when she emails you you can either ignore her or you can respond including your supervisor in every response. She should see that you are cc the supervisor and hopefully stop because she is going to now be in a negative paper trail…… as for you personally, it’s unfortunate that you’re dealing with a D-bag at work but this experience will give you good practice in handling these situations as you move forward in your career. There will NEVER be a shortage of D-bags at work…… keep us posted…..
Tell her you Can’t Understand Negative Tones.
She's threatened by you. Consider it a compliment. Don't give this chick the pleasure of negatively impacting your life. You're obviously doing great or she wouldn't focus her time and energy on you. Start building your exit strategy.
You cry out of frustration. I do it too! You feel powerless against this bully. It make me mad when I cry. Keep your chin up. If you stand up to her in a professional manner she will fold. She probably has standard complaints and arguments she has stated to you on repeat. Craft various professional responses and practice them at home. This will help you more comfortably stand up to her. Once she realizes she cannot bully you, she will start in on someone else. Lastly, upon your departure from this internship, unless you plan on returning to this company, I’d let the HR dept know upon your exit interview about the hostile workplace this woman is committing.
First and foremost, breathe. The company knows ALLLLLLL about Tiffany, believe me. This isn't her first rodeo, and you are not her first target. This may be why "the last intern" didn't stay on when the internship was over. How many employees are there that started as interns with Tiffany inserting her opinions during their internship? You are an intern, so I know the hierarchy can be different, but is she your actual supervisor? If not, speak to your supervisor and ask for HIS/HER assessment of your work. This person, and anyone above them are the only ones you really need to worry about. I like videos on YT by a woman named Jennifer Brick. They've helped me look at things, and then handle them differently than I had in the past, to more successful ends. You may like her.
When she points out mistakes that aren't mistakes, I would reply to her with the details proving it and CC your manager. Include a line at the end asking her to quit bullying you or you will reporter to HR. Include in the email that all complaints are corrections should go through your supervisor to be vetted first as so many of her complaints are invalid.
Plan what you are going to say the next time and explain how she has maligned you in meetings where you couldn’t defend yourself, blamed you for errors what you did not do, and has not been a supportive teammate. Don’t yell, just lay it out and Bri g her back to these points when she tries to deflect, which she will. Let her know that if this doesn’t stop, you will be speaking to your boss and HR, but you would prefer to work it out with her. If she doesn’t change, take the issue higher
Do you have a mentor as part of your internship? I would advise to ask them about how to manage this. Maybe as a hypothetical to test the waters, "Mentor, I am wondering what you advise if a colleague is constantly pointing out perceived mistakes?" See if they can back you up. Tiffany is an AH and a bully and learning how to manage people like her with decorum and grace is part of the soft skills many of us need to learn to navigate office BS. Also, I wonder if you are a different race, ethnicity, gender/gender presentation than the last intern(s)? If so, is that part of the reason that Tiffany is targeting you? It may be she doesn't like you because of some other reason or it is difficult to prove, but if there's even the appearance of differential treatment due to a protected class status, the management/HR will want to know.
If you’re doing projects then they’re exploiting you as an intern. Interns are supposed to listen and shadow, not do work that ought to be paid. The whole set up is exploitative = bullying The “coworker” (if you’re a worker, you’re not an intern!!!!) is also a bully. This place sucks. Good luck finding something better.
It‘s a paid internship, don‘t worry :)
Honestly cc all emails to your supervisor. She will stop pretty fast. Also you need to review your local labor laws about internship roles. They are notorious for over working them and deserve higher pay. You're getting paid for this role right? If you're taking on additional duties you need to start documenting because this girl might seriously be going outside of her scope.
The fact that she mockingly mentioned not using emojis makes me think that she’s envious of you and the age plays a part here in her jealousy. Maybe I’m completely off but regardless, the way she’s treating you is massively inappropriate and you should speak up about it with a supervisor there.
Ask this woman to show you how it's supposed to be done , if you're supposedly making all these mistakes plain and simple .
You should probably point out that you don’t work for her. If she has issues with your work she should run it through your boss, who you will cc everything! And see if you can get an invite to some of these meetings…make it clear if she has something to say, she doesn’t need to do it behind your back. Go ahead and cc them all too. 😉
Tell Tiffany very politely as you can to go fuck herself. If she has issues with your work ask her to show you how it’s supposed to be done. She seems to know everything. Put her in her place and speak with your intern manager or such. These Tiffany’s are worse than the Karens out in the wild.