I have a high-school reunion coming up this fall; I won't saywhat the number is. And although time is the great equalizer, I'mambivalent about going because I still remember the annoyingadolescent pecking order that existed.

Back in those days, the cliques pretty much fell into threecategories: dupers, greasers and freaks. Today, dupers would beknown as jocks: the sports and academic over-achievers whobled the school colors and dedicated their lives to theirrespective teams. Greasers aren't as easily translated to today'sterminology. Greaser guys were concerned with cars, hard rockmusic and drinking or getting high; greaser girls had big,ratted hair, lots of makeup, and scared me. Freaks were thenon-conformists, either brainy or not, who didn't fit in witheither group. (Bonus points if you guess what group I was in.)

Imagine my surprise to learn that high-school cliques are aliveand well in the American workplace.

A recent survey conducted by Gallup, “The State of the American Workplace: EmployeeEngagement,” finds that only 30 percent of workers are“engaged, or involved in, enthusiastic about, and committed totheir workplace.” In contrast, 50 percent were “not engaged,”going through the motions to get a paycheck, while 20 percent were“actively disengaged”–actually putting energy into underminingtheir workplace.

Cliques seem to be a byproduct of this toxic environment. About43 percent of the survey respondents said their office orworkplace has cliques. About 17 percent of workers who considerthemselves to be introverts are members of one of an office clique,compared with 27 percent of extroverts.

Think peer pressure ends at graduation? While only11 percent said they felt intimidated by office cliques,20 percent has done something they didn't want to do justto fit in with co-workers: 46 percent went to happyhours, 21 percent watched a TV show or movie to talk about atwork, 19 percent made fun of someone else or pretended not tolike them, 17 percent pretended to like certain food and 9 percenttook smoke breaks.

Politics is a particular cause of stress, with 15 percentadmitting to hiding their political affiliation to fit in. Another10 percent hide the personal hobbies from coworkers and 9 percentdon't reveal their religious/spiritual beliefs andaffiliations.

And while some of this many seem harmless, 13 percent saidthe presence of office cliques has had a negative impact on theircareer progress.

The clique culture thrives in all types of businesses,including independent agencies, says agency management consultant Lisa Harrington. “It's a naturalpart of the human state for people to gather around others likethemselves,” she said. Harrington has seen cliques formby personality type, department, layer of management, agencyrole, or tenure time. “There's a million ways those cliques start,”she said. “And it's inevitable. There's nothing a manager can dobut accept that it will be part of the work culture and turn it toyour advantage.”

However, in extreme cases, cliques can cause major harm to abusiness.

“I've seen cases where good employees have been lost becausethe atmosphere was so toxic in their department,” Harringtonsaid. “You can also see the slowdown of work and lack ofproductivity that happens when time is being spent gathering as theclique.”

When this happens, management must intervene. However,it isn't always easy because unlike sexual harassment or racial orage discrimination, which deal with protected classes, membersof a clique are there by choice.

Because one way cliques get started is in before-and-aftersituations, such as mergers or layoffs, management should keepworkers informed and involved whenever possible. “When changehappens, people take sides,” she said. If it's not possible to becompletely transparent, at least keep employees regularly updatedand informed to try and avoid the splintering that so frequentlyhappens after change.

Of course, some things can't be tolerated: specifically,bullying and spreading lies or negative opinions about thecompany, especially to customers. “We fire gossipers; they're not aprotected class,” Harrington said. “If you're negative or meanor rude, management must intervene.”

Management must also crack down hardon the ”covert disruption” of employees who are sneakierabout subverting the business. “An 'us versus them' attitude aboutmanagers is common, but the adult thing to do is go to managementwith an issue instead of whispering behind their back,” shesaid.

And management can use the clique mentality to their advantageby encouraging positive social outlets: weekly department meetings,monthly meetings groups of departments, quarterly meetings for thewhole organization where people can feel like part of the team.“Give them 15 minutes at the beginning of meeting forsocialization; it's not a waste of time if you'rerunning the meeting properly,” Harrington said.

Also, have some accountable projects with an overarchingcorporate responsibility that depend on interdepartmentalcooperation. Something as simple as tasking employees toresearch buying a new set of copy machines allows them to meetnew people from all over the organization and encouragesengagement. Similarly, all-company social events such as holidayparties should never be undertaken by HR, but should be done byemployees.

Finally, offices that have cliques with lots of time ontheir hands could be suffering from workflow issues, Harringtonsaid. Sometimes negative employees are negative because they'restale in their jobs. Reshuffling work assignments can turn thataround, and give employees a new appreciation of the challengestheir coworkers are dealing with.