Please excuse my rant!!

I'm going to have to disagree about women deserving less pay because of this behavior. I work as a corporate engineer and deal mostly with men. I work hard and make it a point not to make friends at work - it's good to be friendly but not good to have friends at work. Guys are terrible gossips - worse than hens. If you think women are the only ones who judge you before they actually meet you or cut you down behind your back, you need to open your eyes.

As for the original poster, the only thing I can say is to keep you head down, work your butt off, get yourself promoted or find a different job. Unless these women are responsible for your pay raises or can affect performance reviews - heck with them. The best job you can have is the one where you get most of the positive things you are looking for and can put up with the bull**** that comes with the job. No job is perfect. It's just a matter of what you are willing to deal with and what rewards you are wanting (personally, professionally and monetarily).

Whenever this kind of subject comes up I have a very simple moto.

1 or 2 people working together is no problem.
3 or more, and there will be drama. This is a 100% chance.

Once there is another person to talk to...about another person....it happens. Without Fail.

With only 2 people...if one does something that annoys the other, it's quickly forgiven and forgotten (unless it's something horrible like f***ing their spouse.)

Once you have a 3rd person that someone can turn and vent their annoyance to...Drama begins. The more there are, the worse it gets because cliche's start to form.

I think as long as you work in a public environment this is going to be the norm. It really doesn't matter where you work there is going to be someone that will tear others down to build themselves up. It takes tooooooo much energy to feed into that, you expound more energy being the way they are being then you would ignoring them. You cannot control people however you can control how you respond to people. They are actually probably doing you a huge favor by no longer affiliating themselves with you. Be thankful for that. Now we know where the creators of the show Dream On and Alley McBeal got their ideas from, how hasn't sat in the office place and just imagined themselves doing something felonious to that human sized hemorroid at work. (raising hand) Just keep following peace with all men to the best of your ability. :-)

"Hi there, I noticed that you used to be friendly toward me, but now you seem to avoid me. Did I do something to hurt or offend you?"

Avoid drama and possibly imagined problems. If they have something against you, hopefully they just tell you, or at the very least they'll cover their tracks better. If not, then they know that you care about what sort of impression you make and that you would like to be on their good side. Either way, it will clear the air and hopefully improve the work environment.

Women deserve equal pay for equal work. Men are just as big gossips, nags, and whiners.

"Great minds speak of ideas, small minds speak of people".... find comfort in those words when you see immature behavior

Love this!