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"  A coworker and I had a falling out having to do with a young woman who was hired as a support person for him and me; he thought she did good work, but I disagreed, and my boss took my coworker&amp;#039;s side. I felt that the three of them were against me. I talked to human resources about it and mentioned that my coworker was always at this woman&amp;#039;s desk and gave her special treatment by teaching her higher-level duties that I was next in line for. HR asked to meet with my coworker about this and also asked if he was involved with her. (Rumors of a romance were started but not by me. I&amp;#039;m not sure, but I do think something happened between them. She gave him lots of attention, would stretch in front of him and sit on his desk.) My coworker said I&amp;#039;d crossed the line by talking to HR. Now, work is unbearable; he seems to look for ways to be mean. Any advice? Anonymous Even though I appreciate your predicament it&amp;#039;s miserable to go to a job that&amp;#039;s become unbearable you need to take a hard look at what prompted you to behave as you did. Because I agree with your coworker; going to HR was out of line, especially given the nature of your complaint, which is essentially a difference in opinion. (Your boss agreed with your coworker, not you.) Is it possible you went to HR because you&amp;#039;re jealous of what appears to be special treatment being given to this woman? Or that you&amp;#039;re put off by the possibility of a romance between her and your coworker? Regardless of whether their romance is rumor or fact, it&amp;#039;s none of your business, now or ever.  That said, you need to deal with the consequences of your actions. This may mean focusing exclusively on work at work and staying out of others&amp;#039; business, since you now have a reputation for running to management when things aren&amp;#039;t going your way. Correcting this perception will take time. Are you that patient? If not, perhaps you should start circulating your r\u00E9sum\u00E9. Once you&amp;#039;re honest with yourself about why you felt the need to go to HR, I suspect you&amp;#039;ll have a better sense of what you should do. In the meantime, stick to your work and resist the urge to further stir things up. Award-winning writer Karen Karbo is the author of How to Hepburn: Lessons on Living from Kate the Great. She&amp;#039;s also a mom, a writing teacher, and a horse owner. Send your questions to her at: The Hard Stuff, REDBOOK, 300 W. 57th St., New York, NY 10019 or karenkarbo@redbookmag.com. Letters may be edited for clarity and length, and must include your initials, age, city, and state. "^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://www.redbookmag.com/life/money-career/q-and-a/a10849/dealing-with-coworker/>