Make sure to read the OP's elaboration in the comments:
http://www.askamanager.org/2017/07/is-the-work-environment-ive-created-on-my-team-too-exclusive.html#comment-1572938
:-O Yikes!
Double yikes - this "manager" is horrid. I hope HR pays attention (HAHAHA! who am I kidding!)
The only good thing the letter writer wrote is her admission in the comments that HR put her on suspension pending investigation.
FFS... I read this this morning and thought, ok, this manager is at the very least asking for advice. The letter definitely read "tell me I'm right" but maybe there's a small chance they're willing to hear they're wrong. I read a lot of the comments and (like usual) appreciated the insight to most of the commentators, but I missed the letter writer's response, and all I could think of was, "are you fucking kidding me??"
- Your team was behaving in an extremely hostile, bullying, unprofessional, and overall shitty way. They a) took pictures of another employee and b) posted it to social media and c) made fun "of her weight, her clothes/style, how much water she drank etc." HUGE FUCKING PROBLEM.
- Someone saw it and found it not funny and complained to HR (RIGHTLY FUCKING SO). Yet you want to penalize them. First of all, no. Second of all, there are usually whistleblower rules protecting this person. Third, you're a fucking idiot.
- "If I knew she would have been like this, I would have pushed back on my director not to hire her in favor for someone younger but she had a fantastic background that wowed my higher ups." What the actual fuck. Translated from douchebag: "If I knew she would have cramped our style and prevented us from having our dudebro fun by day drinking and participating in general assholery, I would have had a temper tantrum at my boss, but because she actually knew how to do her job and would probably make us do our jobs, my boss hired her anyway."
You're the reason millennials in the work place get a bad rep, asshat.
Edited to add: oh wait, out of all the comments the LW could have responded to, they made a comment regarding how they're so much better educated because they have an MBA versus just the Bachelors in public policy the colleague who left had.