Introduction

If you’ve ever worked in an office—remote, hybrid, or in person—you’ve probably had the sheer misfortune of encountering The Office Drama Queen.

Did you think your day was going badly at the office? Well, it has now that this wretched creature has turned up. The Office Drama Queen.

Everything is a drama:

• The boss didn’t let her leave early to pick up her new dress for Saturday.
• She’s been cc'd on an email chain and responded in CAPITAL LETTERS: "TAKE ME OF THIS EMAIL CHAIN."
• She refers to her inbox as “a war zone” and the Monday team meeting as “a personal attack.”

👀 Everyone, watch out. The Drama Queen strikes again—and trust me, you're going to be dragged into a chaotic response to a very trivial matter. You know that saying, “Don’t make a mountain out of a molehill”? She invented it.

Who Is The Drama Queen?

The Office Drama Queen is a living, breathing human siren—except instead of warning about incoming danger, she is the danger. She thrives on negativity like it's oxygen and can detonate over the most minor inconvenience.

Common Traits:

• 🚨 Highly reactive: A missed Teams message = emotional betrayal.
• 🧨 Overly emotional: Once cried in the break room because someone ate her yogurt… three weeks ago.
• 📉 Change-averse: Hates change so much she still uses Internet Explorer.
• 🎭 Theatrical: Everything is a performance—you just didn’t buy tickets.
• 👎 Chronically negative: Has five reasons why your idea won’t work and a sixth about how it already failed in her dreams.
• 📢 Vocally volcanic: You’ll hear her before you see her.
• 🧃 Energy vampire: Will emotionally drain the whole team before lunchtime.
• 🫣 Apocalypse predictor: “If we move desks again, I swear the whole company will collapse.”

Why Every Office Has (At Least) One

Once they’ve been crowned the Drama Queen, it sticks. But don’t be fooled—just because she’s dramatic doesn’t mean she’s not effective. She might be good at her job... when she’s not emotionally unraveling over Outlook notifications.

Reasons They Somehow Survive:

• 🤷 Coworkers get sucked into her theatrics and try to empathize.
• 👩‍💼 She could be the boss, or worse—the boss's favourite.
• 🚩 Giving her a disciplinary might trigger a HR-level emotional meltdown.
• 🤝 Teams have surrendered to the chaos and "just let her be."
• 🙉 Management has chosen the ancient strategy of: Ignore and hope it goes away.

🛡️ Surviving the Office Drama Queen: Your Tactical Guide

Whether you're stuck on a project with her or share a desk partition wall, here’s how to handle The Office Drama Queen without turning into one yourself:

How to Handle the Office Drama Queen:

• Set firm boundaries: Smile politely, but don’t get pulled into the emotional tornado.
• Respond, don’t react: Her goal is a reaction. Yours is inner peace and job security.
• Limit engagement: Treat her drama like you treat phishing emails—don’t click anything.
• Use facts, not feelings: Drama queens feed on emotional responses. Keep it data-driven.
• Deflect with humour: Use satire as your shield—“Wow, that was an Oscar-worthy performance!”
• Involve HR... strategically: If things escalate, bring in reinforcements. Wear emotional PPE.
• Don’t try to fix her: You’re not her therapist. You’re just trying to survive until Friday.
• Stay neutral in her soap operas: Once you pick a side, you’re in the spin-off series.

Could You Be The Drama?

Know one? Work with one?
Or... brace yourself... are you one? 😬

Don’t worry—self-awareness is the first step. Drama detox can be achieved through deep breaths, caffeine, and learning not to overuse “Reply All.”

💬 Let’s Hear Your Juiciest Workplace Absurdities!

Got a story about an Office Drama Queen who once faked a fainting spell over a printer jam?
Or someone who demanded a full department meeting because someone took her chair?

👉 Spill your most jaw-dropping #WorkplaceAbsurdities stories in the comments, or tag @OfficeBantomime and help us shine a light on these desk-bound disasters.

Let’s name, shame, and laugh until our quarterly performance reviews arrive.

Together, we can bring these Drama Queens into the daylight—
one overreacting action figure at a time.