亲爱的安妮：大约一年前，我所在的团队与另外一支团队合并，从那以后我每天的工作就如同噩梦一般。新同事很不友善，控制欲强，处心积虑地贬低、欺负别人。他们还暗地里破坏我们的工作，比如妨碍我们获得公司公共支持人员的帮助。他们的所作所为导致部门内好几位关键成员请求调离，他们的离开进一步影响了我们的业绩，因为我们不得不对替补上来的新人进行培训。

    我的老板对这种情况心知肚明，但他并不是那种敢于直面冲突的人，他并不想破坏现状。（最初也是他提出来合并两支团队的。）人力资源部总是说，我们有问题可以随时向他们反映，不必担心打击报复，但我对此将信将疑。如果我真的去人力资源部反映情况，反而遭到那些恶意同事的报复，甚至遭到解雇的话，我能就此提起诉讼吗？— 忍无可忍的人

    亲爱的忍无可忍：很不幸的是，单纯的恶意行为并未包含在反报复法范围内，除非是针对民族、种族、性别、年龄或宗教的恶劣行径，或者针对向政府监管机构揭发不法行为（如内幕交易）的人士进行打击报复。

    丹尼尔•凯赛是纽约就业律师事务所Kaiser Saurborn & Mair的合伙人。他说：“各个州都有自己的反报复法规，但绝大多数地方都规定恶意行为必须跟公共政策问题有关联，你才具备足够依据来采取法律行动。”如果只是受到不友善的对待，或者因为同事对你怀有恶意导致你被解雇，你并没有什么依据去起诉他们。

    专门解决此类难题的咨询师琳达•杜雷说：“你有两个选择。第一，越过上司，去找更高层的领导；同时要信任人力资源部，并正式向他们投诉，请他们介入调查并解决问题。第二个选择，就是直接离开。”

    杜雷出版过一本很有见地的著作，名为《凶险职场生存秘籍：保护自己，化解同事、老板和工作环境带来的威胁》（Surviving the Toxic Workplace: Protect Yourself Against the Co-Workers, Bosses, and Work Environments That Poison Your Day）。她在书中写道，像你遇到的这种困境实际上并不鲜见。“企业的常态之一就是变化。有时坏人也会占上风。”她还说，求助老板的老板也可能无济于事，“在有些公司，坏人也能一路高升，而他们的负面影响甚至能渗透到最底层的邮件收发室。”

    如果你决定让人力资源部参与解决问题，那么送你两条建议：首先，不要自己一个人去谈，最好多带几个同事，他们可以为你作证。杜雷强调：“在一定程度上，人数多意味着更高的安全性。”如果你的说法得到了他人的支持和佐证，公司也不太可能把你当成爱抱怨的可怜虫而开除你，被别人打击报复的可能性也更小。

    Dear Annie: Ever since my team merged with a different one, about a year ago, my job has become a nightmare. My new coworkers are hostile, controlling, and go out of their way to belittle and intimidate others. They also undermine the work my group is trying to do, partly by denying us access to the support staff we are all supposed to be sharing. It has gotten so bad that a couple of key members of our department have requested, and gotten, transfers out -- which further damages our ability to do our jobs here, since we have to train replacements.

    My boss is aware of the situation, but he's a non-confrontational kind of guy who doesn't want to rock the boat. (The merger of our two groups was his idea.) Our human resources people have often said that anyone should feel free to come to them with problems, without fear of retaliation, but I wonder if I can trust them. If I complain to HR and my hostile colleagues react by getting me fired, do I have grounds for a lawsuit? — Fed Up

    Dear Fed Up: Yikes. Unfortunately for you, anti-retaliation laws do not cover sheer nastiness -- unless it arises from discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, sex, age, or religion, or if you are a whistleblower who has reported unlawful behavior (insider trading, for example) to government regulators.

    "Each state has its own retaliation statutes, but in the vast majority of places, in order for you to have grounds for legal action, the hostility has to be connected to one of these public-policy issues," says Daniel J. Kaiser, a partner in New York City employment law firm Kaiser Saurborn & Mair. If you're simply being treated badly -- or if, as you fear, you get fired -- because your coworkers are mean and obnoxious, you won't have a leg to stand on.

    "So you have two choices here," says Linnda Durré, a consultant who specializes in resolving the kinds of conflicts you are describing. "Either you can go over your boss's head to his boss, and at the same time take the human resources people at their word and lodge a formal complaint with them. Let them investigate and try to fix the problems. Or you can leave."

    Sadly, according to Durré, who wrote an insightful book called Surviving the Toxic Workplace: Protect Yourself Against the Co-Workers, Bosses, and Work Environments That Poison Your Day, dilemmas like yours are not at all uncommon. "Change is one of the few constants in business," she says. "Sometimes the Evil Empire takes over." Your boss's boss, alas, may be no help, she adds: "In some organizations, the evil goes all the way to the top, and trickles all the way down to the mailroom."

    If you decide to bring the HR people into it, two suggestions: Take someone with you, or ideally more than one person, who can corroborate what you're saying. "To some extent, there is safety in numbers," notes Durré. You're less likely to be dismissed as a whiner (or retaliated against) if others back up your version of events.