Hi all! Long time lurker, first time poster here 🙂
I quit a very toxic company a month ago (tons of gossip and politics, my former manager suddenly got fired, asshole manager replaced him, etc.) and now I am about to start a new corporate job. I hope for the best but wouldn't be surprised to have a few assholes to deal with in my new job as well. So, now I am wondering how to best start off and protect myself against any possible problems with colleagues or management.
I've read a lot here about carefully documenting (journaling) your work and progress to have in case someone questions your performance, so I am definitely thinking about doing that. However, some days I will be working in the office and a lot of tasks will be handed to me during quick meetings with my boss/colleagues and there might not be any written proof of it. In the past, I had a manager who would give me new tasks during video calls, and would later sometimes change them or criticize my performance even though I did as instructed.
My job is fast-paced (social media related) and it's normal to have multiple meetings throughout the day to adjust something or do some ad hoc tasks, so I can't send an email to my boss after every short meeting to just “leave a paper trail”. It would also come off as weird or sketchy since a lot of meetings are conducted as some informal brainstorming sessions and nothing is written down usually unless there is a big change in projects we work on.
So, r/antiwork, please share any tips on how to survive the corporate hellscape and protect myself from any discrimination, unjustified criticism and office politics. This new job has a nice salary and benefits and I can't really afford to lose it any time soon.