I work for a very small marketing agency. One of our clients (let's call them G) recently hired themselves a new marketing manager (will call her A) who has apparently shrank my company's roles with G. Bottom line – my team hates A. They're always talking shit about this poor woman in our Slack channels; what she's wearing, her not-so-great financial situation, how she talks. I don't know A at all, but my team’s behavior seems gross regardless of how annoying she may be.
About a couple weeks ago, my team set up a fucking sting operation to sabotage A. They had someone else email A asking for marketing/branding help and offering pay in exchange for her services. A wrote back and said she'd be thrilled to learn more. Curtain drop. My team started celebrating A's demise, sending screenshots to G's CEO and everything. “BUSTED!” with celebratory emojis and further gossip in our Slack chats.
I personally hate what they did to A, imo what she does on the side is none of their business. G's business, sure, but G wouldn't have known about it had my team not maliciously interfered. No matter how much you dislike working with somebody, fucking with their money is not okay in my book.
Anyway, now I'm in a weird position. I received an email a few days ago from somebody interested in my graphic design services. I looked them up and they're certainly real (both their position and the company) and seem reputable. But I still have this thought that it's my company looking to test me next. I just really want to make better money, and my employers know that yet refuse to pay me more. Any thoughts on how I should proceed?