I have worked in my field for about 5 years but specifically in my specialty for a little over a year. Anyway, when I started my specialty, I was at a hospital for a year and loved the environment there. My coworker at my old job was my best friend. She calls me her child. I lost a few family members and had to relocate after a year of working there. My current job is one hour away from my family, but I am not too happy because of my coworker. Before I started, 3 people left within 3 months because of her. My senior coworker has been in this field for 30 years and has a lot of experiences, which I respect her for that. My boss is also new (9 months) in, and he doesn't manage our department. My senior coworker basically runs it. My boss is in a separate building, and his position is way too high to manage us. He is a nice guy, though. The first 2 months of working was hell for me. Although I only have one year of experience, I learned a lot. As I mentioned above, I have been in this field for 5 years. I am very well-respected in my field, just not my new specialty. My coworker always doubts my work. Everything I do has to go through her. Even if I send an email of my findings during inspection, she expects it to get approved from her. She consistently micromanages me (e.g. staring at my screen since we shared a room, ensuring I am not on my phone, checking who I am meeting with because she has a lot of enemies at work, and checking when I clock in or out). I am salaried, so none of this is necessary. She also always asks me dumb questions to belittle me (e.g. What do you know about covid?). If I tell her the symptoms, she would correct me tell me the dates of covid. She would go around saying I don't know anything about covid, which is not true because I have been working with it for the past 2 years. . It's just small things to belittle me. I am always documenting everything because it seems like she wants to find ways to wrong me. I never brought it up to my boss because he really respects my coworker.
Anyway, we recently hired a 3rd coworker who was supposed to be taking over a lot of my duties. I honestly believe they hired her so they could get rid of me. The 3rd coworker misrepresented herself and honestly has zero experience, although she claimed that she did. She is very nice, though. I was able to request a cubicle outside of the shared room, so the 3rd coworker is now sitting on my seat. Ever since I have been in my cubicle, I feel happier. I am not being watched, which honestly gave me anxiety. My senior coworker has been trash talking about the 3rd coworker to me, which I honestly don't care because I know how the senior coworker is. I can't trust her based on how she treated me. She has been treating me very well now because I am the only one she can rely. However, she still expects me to tell her whenever I arrive or leave (which is ridiculous because we are salaried and this is a leadership position). Again, my boss lets her run the department so she is basically my boss. I am 4 months in and there is a job like mine that is open nearby. Should I apply for that job? I feel bad because I left my other job after a year due to family problems. I stayed at my first job for 4 years, though. Should I stay for a year then leave?