I have been working at a job for four months and I’ve had to go off work sick for stress anxiety and depression due to how my manager is treating me and the toxic culture and insidious behaviour from some of my work colleagues which has left me questioning myself and my intelligence
I am very well qualified and have a Masters degree. I have two degrees and a music degree and it’s not difficult for me to find employment. Since I joined this new job, I have experienced certain bullying behaviours from colleagues which has isolated me and has got me questioning myself and my sanity.
My manager told me at my three month meeting that I was underperforming and threatened to dismiss me at month six if I didn’t step up my performance. So I reached out for support with my learning disability to help me pass probation. Since then my manager has been passive aggressive and made out that she hates me. She told me I shouldn’t have reached out for support and what I did was wrong. When I go into the office she ignores me all day so I’m left feeling something is wrong. In all our manager meetings, she picks apart all my work and criticises everything I do. I’m damned if I do and damned if I don’t. Nothing I do is good enough
Another work colleague who is responsible for delegating me work I think she is setting me up to fail. She hands over impossible tasks to me which I haven’t been trained on and expects me to complete them whilst overloading me with work. Then when I reach out for support with the task, she ignores my messages and says she’s busy, and never has time to help me, so I end up getting in trouble with my manager.
Another work colleague absolutely LOVES fault finding all my work, nitpicking it all apart and telling me on a daily basis what I’ve done is wrong, down to tiny spelling errors. She tells me that she looks at my schedule and always sends me messages asking what sort of work I’m doing.
Am I being bullied?
What Girls & Guys Said
Opinion
2Opinion
Dang girl, that sounds like a really tough situation. From what you're describing, it definitely seems like some kind of bullying or harassment is going on there. A few things stand out:
- Threatening to fire you after only a few months is super unfair, especially if you've been open about needing some support.
- Your manager ignoring you and constantly criticizing everything you do is way over the top. She should be helping you improve, not making you feel awful all the time.
- That other coworker piling huge impossible tasks on you without training and then refusing to help is sketchy too. No way could anyone finish those without support. Seems like she's setting you up to fail on purpose.
- And the other one nitpicking all your tiny mistakes just to put you down seems unnecessary and mean.
You obviously have the skills for the job if you have all those degrees. These people just seem out to get you. I'd definitely start looking for a new job ASAP before they find an excuse to fire you. In the meantime, document everything - dates, what was said, any emails/texts - in case you need to report them or defend yourself. You shouldn't have to put up with that toxic environment. Stay strong! You'll find something better.
No you're deff experiencing bullying. Go to HR about it
Or it's called the eeoc
Something like that.
But honestly you can't do much about it unless you quit and find another job
Is the EEOC effective today?
Fuck that leave