You gotta love it. I resigned from my job last week to work in not my ideal industry, but knowing it will keep me sane until I get something better.
My department was basically 2 groups: Club Mom for women who despite being in their mid-40s, don't know how to function outside of a sorority and their recent graduate proteges – women in their early 30s working their 1st job out of college as department directors (seriously…HOW?!)
The only coworker who didn't subscribe to the mobbing, gossip, and groupthink left months ago (gee, I wonder why). There were 3 people in my role for less than a year before me (hmm…)
I still did my best to get along and get to know my colleagues without becoming a mean girl, and it went as expected. If middle school taught me anything, if you are the 'other', then you're everyone's target.
Every time I asked for feedback, they would confirm that my work was correct. If I sent them something for peer review they'd agree to review it, and then at the meeting say, “I didn't read any of what you sent” and laugh. When I asked for directives, my coworkers gave me misinformation and directives that only upset the other departments.
In one instance, I expressed to my boss and coworker that I was struggling with unresponsive managers to which my boss responded, “well, we don't have to respond to you.” They both had a good giggle, I said nothing. Sure, you don't have to respond but please don't ask me why something isn't done if that's your attitude.
My coworkers would frequently no show or cancel meetings with me, to which I was always flexible and understanding. Again, fine if you reschedule but please don't ask me why a task is taking longer to complete. It was obviously a game, but I wasn't going to play.
So my last week, I double booked and skipped meetings with my coworkers. The nasty, passive aggressive emails that ensued were worth it and didn't hurt anymore.
Even more fun, I somehow got blamed for “ruining” a baby shower because I didn't write 3 sentences on a Word document. Suddenly, they knew how to respond and meetings were very important to our team and communication.
Wait, I thought we didn't have to respond to each other? Tee hee! Sorry, I guess I missed rush week. 🙂