It blindsided me in the moment, but in hindsight I should’ve known it was coming.
Same old story. Cliquey work environment I was kept out of. Acquaintances I thought I’d made spreading things they’d said about others under the guise that I’d said it. Coworkers upset about my promotion and threatening to fight me. My ex-superior didn’t see this as an issue and held my job over my head to solve it. His words were, “Figure this out on your own and prove your leadership skills, or I’ll fire you.” Great start, yeah?
After that incident, it got harder to relate to my coworkers and I truly believe that is when things changed. They saw they could disrespect me further and nothing would come of it and when it continued to happen, I was told I was the problem. People starting rumors about me? I’m the problem. Passive aggressive behavior? I’m the problem, again, with “you can’t react to it” on top. To make matters worse, he’d take things I said to him about my job, back to others with a gossip tilt. I had to explain to those people I didn’t say this, I said that.
During that phone call, he told me I was making him so frustrated that he was going to make a decision he couldn’t take back. He also felt it was the perfect time to tell me what my other co-leads had been saying about me— I shouldn’t have been promoted, I wasn’t ready for the promotion, and I was confrontational. Given he was the one who pushed me for promotion, trained me and vouched for me, I’m not sure why he decided to listen to the people that had nothing to do with it.
To make matters more confusing, I’d just been into work before all of this and everything was fine. Or so I thought. He didn’t make mention of any of this. I actually thought everything was finally ok.
I’m so fucking tired of children masquerading as adults in the workplace. I’m tired of company culture and I’m tired of being told one thing, just to get fucked on another. It is maddening. Fucking insane.