The Hidden Wounds: Workplace Bullying in The Coworker

Thematic Claim: Systemic Abuse That Escalates to Destruction

In The Coworker, workplace bullying is not random meanness but a sustained, systemic campaign of exclusion, humiliation, and sabotage that escalates from mockery to property destruction and ultimately enables a murder. The novel argues that bullying creates a toxic ecosystem where perpetrators rationalize their cruelty, enablers look away, and the target becomes isolated and desperate—sometimes to the point of becoming dangerous themselves. Freida McFadden crafts a narrative where the bully Natalie Farrell and the target Dawn Schiff are both trapped in a cycle that leaves no one innocent.

Tracing the Bullying Across the Plot

1. The Bridal Shower (Chapter 27)

Four months before Dawn goes missing, coworker Kim Healey‘s bridal shower becomes a public spectacle of exclusion. Dawn bakes twelve turtle-shaped cupcakes and brings them to the office. When she arrives at the conference room, Natalie blocks the doorway and tells her she shouldn’t come because she’s not friends with the bride. Yet every other employee is inside. Later, Dawn finds her cupcakes crushed in the break-room trash. Natalie’s message is clear: you are not wanted, and your efforts will be destroyed.

This act goes beyond simple exclusion—it is a calculated humiliation that uses food, a universal symbol of sharing, as a weapon. The smashed cupcakes prefigure the later destruction of Dawn’s possessions and demonstrate how bullying warps even celebratory events into arenas of cruelty.

2. The Vandalized Cubicle (Chapter 36)

One month before the main timeline, the escalation becomes physical. Dawn arrives at work to find her cubicle vandalized: her iris plant toppled, glass and ceramic turtles smashed, and her stuffed turtle slit open with a red liquid spilling out. The red liquid mimics blood, transforming a childish prank into a violent threat. Natalie arrives early, dismisses the damage as “just some toy turtles,” and later Dawn spots the stolen ketchup bottle in Natalie’s trash—confirming Natalie’s involvement.

This scene marks a critical turning point. The destruction of the turtle figurines—Dawn’s only personal decorations—is a symbolic attack on her identity. The stuffed turtle with its “blood” is a death threat in miniature. When Dawn reports the vandalism to Seth Hoffman, the manager responds with indifference, telling her to clean it up herself. The systemic nature of the bullying is exposed: those in power refuse to intervene.

3. The Aftermath and the Cycle of Retaliation

After Dawn’s body is found, Detective Santoro confronts Natalie, revealing that multiple coworkers described a pattern of cruelty: mocking Dawn, excluding her from events, and damaging her property. The hashtag #VixedBullies trends on social media, and Natalie’s radio interview is cancelled. Yet even as the public condemns the bullying, Natalie continues to deny any wrongdoing, insisting she was “nice” to Dawn.

The epilogue (Chapter 63) complicates the theme. Dawn is revealed to have murdered her friend Tara Wilkes, and Natalie has embezzled charity funds. Both women agree to mutual blackmail: Natalie keeps Dawn’s secret, and Dawn keeps Natalie’s. This ending suggests that workplace bullying does not just harm the target—it corrupts the entire environment, creating survivors who learn to lie, manipulate, and even kill. Bullying begets a cycle of violence that neither bully nor victim escapes.

Character and Symbol Connections

The Bully and the Enablers

Natalie embodies the charismatic bully who uses charm and social power to isolate her target. She enlists Kim Healey as a participant in mocking Dawn’s virginity (Chapter 20) and publicly excludes her. Seth Hoffman, the manager, is a passive enabler: he dismisses Dawn’s complaints, tells her to “work it out on her own,” and later has an affair with Natalie. Kim also betrays Dawn by confirming the bullying to the detective, then agreeing to stay quiet under threat of blackmail (Chapter 25). The novel shows that bullying thrives when leaders refuse to act and peers participate or stay silent.

The Target

Dawn Schiff is written as a socially awkward, meticulous person who desperately wants to belong. She emails her friend Mia about tips to get Natalie to like her. She tries to smile, flatter, and comply. But every overture is met with mockery or sabotage. Her mother dismisses her pleas for help (Chapter 30). Dawn’s isolation is total: no coworkers, no family support, only a long-distance friend. The narrative forces readers to see bullying from the inside—the small humiliations that accumulate into a psychological breaking point.

Symbols of Bullying

Complexity and Contradiction

The novel resists a simple “bullying is bad” lesson by complicating both the bully and the victim. Natalie is undeniably cruel, yet she also seems to believe her own justifications: she tells the radio host she “protected” Dawn. The narrative exposes the self-deception of bullies who minimize their behavior. At the same time, Dawn is sympathetic but not innocent. She murders Tara Wilkes and later trades on that crime to secure blackmail leverage. The epilogue shows both women unreformed, locked in a pact of mutual destruction.

This complexity raises uncomfortable questions: does suffering abuse turn a person into an abuser? Can a target ever be held accountable for actions taken during or after a bullying campaign? McFadden does not provide easy answers—instead she shows how the workplace climate of cruelty warps everyone it touches.

Another contradiction lies in the role of Detective Santoro. He investigates the bullying as a possible motive for murder, yet the actual murderer is not Natalie but Dawn herself (she killed Tara). The bullying is real but is not the direct cause of the central crime. This red herring challenges readers to consider how quickly society blames bullying for worse outcomes without examining the full picture.

Study Questions and Answers

1. Why does Natalie destroy Dawn’s turtle cupcakes and exclude her from the bridal shower?
   Answer: Natalie uses the bridal shower to assert social dominance. By crushing the cupcakes and blocking Dawn from entering, she sends a message that Dawn is not welcome and that her efforts to belong will be punished. The act reinforces the pecking order in the office.

2. How does Seth Hoffman’s inaction contribute to the workplace bullying?
   Answer: As manager, Seth has the authority to intervene but repeatedly dismisses Dawn’s complaints. When she reports the vandalized cubicle, he tells her to clean it up herself. His indifference normalizes the bullying and gives Natalie implicit permission to continue.

3. What does the stuffed turtle with the red liquid symbolize?
   Answer: The stuffed turtle is Dawn’s treasured possession; the slit belly and fake blood transform a comfort object into a death threat. It symbolizes the escalation from social exclusion to physical intimidation, and it foreshadows the eventual violence that surrounds Dawn.

4. In what way does the epilogue complicate the theme of workplace bullying?
   Answer: The epilogue reveals that Dawn is a murderer and Natalie an embezzler. Both use blackmail to protect themselves. This shows that bullying does not create a simple victim-perpetrator binary; instead, it breeds a survival-of-the-fittest mentality where anyone can become dangerous.

5. How does the social media backlash (hashtag #VixedBullies) affect the story’s treatment of bullying?
   Answer: The hashtag brings public condemnation, but it also allows Natalie to feel persecuted. She sees herself as the victim of online mobs rather than as a bully. This mirrors real-world dynamics where bullies often deflect accountability by claiming they are being unfairly targeted.