Helping colleague [22-23/F] after she has come to me [29/M] for support after monumental workplace bullying?

I work for a Fortune 50 company as a project manager – One of my talents in life is getting people to like and trust me, I am good at “fitting in” and can build trust quickly. I need to do this to get work accomplished and often use it to my (professional) advantage. People tell me gossip (excellent for work purposes) and I can become “one of the guys” so to speak. I finished my MBA and returned to work 2 years ago and landed here. A 6-month project has become a 2-year assignment and at the start of the next fiscal I’ll be announced as the new director of our unit.

The current director doesn’t know I’m taking over or that she’s about to be canned. She leads by chaos, cares more about what her employees think about her, rather than getting results or setting expectations, consequently, this place is like a house fire and she’s spraying gas. It became a viper’s nest with staff doing what they wanted, complete and total chaos reigned. One of the things they were doing was setting-up private groups on the internal IM system to trash people. They set-up a group called “Katie Sucks”. Katie is the newest employee, she’s early twenties, first job, no experience and struggling to adjust. Her work is good, but she can’t handle the total chaos. Staff grew to hate her for totally invalid reasons and set-up this group. I was added after getting myself on there (I knew they were trashing her and had my eyes on getting rid of a few of the bigger malcontents when I took over). To my shock, the messages (written by both men and women) were insane – the most sadistic shit you’ve ever read. They detailed “pranks” they pulled and things they did – including things they put in her water. I printed off every message and went above the current director to the AVP of our unit and AVP of HR.

I came in late one Monday and more than half the team was gone. They had fired everyone on the IM system (their real names were used, I mean, it was sloppy and stupid), canceled three internships with corresponding letters to the universities and reprimanded two people who knew and said nothing. I was surprised to see how quick they acted. The current Director was given a PIP that was set beyond her capabilities so they have a way out of severance and I now speak with the AVP directly each week.

Katie had/has no idea why everyone was let go. She thought it was performance based and came to me terrified. She does good work – she’s not an elite performer, but she’s good and she’s easy to get along with. Right now, Katie is in sheer panic mode. She works at an incredibly furious pace and is going to burn out. I went by her desk (she had no idea I was coming to her cubicle) and I could hear her talking to herself and saying “did I put on deodorant.. shoot!” then slathering it on. She’s come to work with her hair a mess, stays logged in to our system way too late and is pushing out work to stave off being fired. I can’t tell her why they were let go, as per our lawyer’s instructions, but I let her know “it wasn’t performance….” And left it at that.

She comes to my desk 2-3 times a day to get help. People are turned-off by Katie. She’s not autistic or anything, but her panic and confusion mean she’s awkward, speaks at a rate 3 times what is audible and has a harried expression on her face. When nervous she plays with her hair and kinds of “balls up”, she’ll sit in a hair with her knees and elbows pointed towards her stomach and twiddles her hair. She dresses professionally but she can be a bit of a mess. Her parents have stopped by and she almost went apoplectic. They seem like nice, normal people. Anyway, the Director knows the score and why her staff was laid to waste. She’s been tough on Katie – the Director will be formally asked to leave very soon, I know when and it’s sooner rather than later. In the meantime, I try to coach Katie and tell her not to take too much seriously - she can't be fired at this point as the Director's request to HR would be delayed until after her termination and then simply deleted... none of which I can tell Katie.

I’ve never worked with younger female staff member, I’ve never managed them, so I don’t know how to work with her and my fear is coming off like I am pursuing a romantic interest rather than strictly professional. My instinct is to form a good working relationship with her now so that when the Director is gone and I’m installed, she can sort of relax, but I’m worried I’d be coming off as predatory if I asked her for coffee at the commissary to chat about her job/work strategies. She barely eats, would inviting her and another colleague for lunch (who is also female...) be inappropriate? I really don't want anyone to misinterpret my actions.

Is it too unprofessional? Is this sort of a mistake waiting to happen? I don’t want to single her out, but she’s the newest person, most terrified and needs coaching on managing office/team dynamics.

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tl;dr youngest employee was bullied mercilessly and she comes to me for support/help. Is it inappropriate to take her for coffee to talk about her role and office politics or is that just too inappropriate? How can I help this kid without coming off like I'm pushing something sexual when I'm absolutely not.

Submitted January 31, 2019 at 10:29AM by StandardClock http://bit.ly/2DL4SEq