Newsrooms are a lot like High School.

Remember that mean girl who made you nervous when she walked into the room? Or the boy you thought was your friend until you realized he was talking about you behind your back?

Those kids are still around. Only now they’re adults, and they’re working in newsrooms all across the country.

There was a main anchor at one of my stations who literally made me nervous every time I heard her expensive heels hit the floor.

I wasn’t scared of her, I just did not want to have to deal with her.

It was her goal to make everyone around her feel like an idiot. Especially someone who she thought might take her job some day.

She was just down right mean. She would talk about your weight, hair, and wardrobe. She never said it to your face, but always loud enough so you could hear her.

If you were in the studio while she was anchoring she would pretend you weren’t there and would say something mean about your story of the day. She never had anything productive to say.

If she noticed a group of reporters were becoming friends she would do whatever she could to put an end to it. She would become friends with one member of the group and slowly, but deliberately, turn them all against each other.

If she didn’t like you, she would refuse to say your name in a toss or would ask you random questions live on television to try and make you mess up.

Management watched this happen and did nothing about it, because she was their star.

They thought she was more important than the rest of the staff. When I went to management to address rumors the anchor had started about me, they told me my life would be easier if I were her friend.

Here’s the problem with that: It’s incredibly unfair, creates a terrible work environment, and let’s her think there’s nothing wrong with what she’s doing.

I tried to talk to the anchor about how she was treating me and others. It did not go well.

So what do you do if you’re in this situation? My only solution was to ignore her.

I thought back to high school, and remembered that the bullies loved attention. They loved knowing they were winning.

I stopped letting the anchor win. I stopped looking frustrated when I would hear her talk about me. I never talked about her to anyone. I didn’t even look in her direction.

Eventually, it wasn’t fun for her to make my life miserable any more.

I watched as other coworkers became her prey. Slowly, some of them started to realize they needed to ignore her, too.

Don’t let a bad coworker beat you down. Don’t let lack if compassion and understanding from managers make you feel like there’s nothing you can do. If it gets too bad, go to HR and file a report.

I like to think karma will hit this anchor, but unfortunately I don’t think it will.

I do know her star is fading though. In a few years she’ll be a former local news anchor, and hopefully whoever takes her place will be a much nicer human being.