Zoom. They slagged me off, not realising I could hear.

[OnceIWasAnApe]

Long-time poster, namechanged.


Aaaaargh.

I am self-employed and am currently working for a company as part of a team of five people. I've been working with them for a few months, and have a few months left.

We are working over zoom this week, but will be meeting face to face from next week onwards. Today, I dialled into a meeting and the rest of the group obviously didn't realise I was present. They were slagging off the work I'd done before Christmas (basically saying I am too keen and so do things too quickly before it's time.) Whilst I do see that I was more keen than the rest of them, I think that this comes more from a gossipy, bitchy, offhand sort of chat, and I don't think that they really think I'm a bad worker.

I feel HORRIBLE.

I don't know why I'm posting really.

[MarieIVanArkleStinks]

Are you called Lucy?

Very witty!

[MintyMabel]

maybe I was a bit over-keen to prove myself and jumped the gun a bit.

No employer will expect you to take longer than is necessary to do a job because they want you to fit in with the team.

I was in a similar situation with a Local Authority team I was seconded to. They were all bent out of shape because I didn’t join in with chats (they spent all day chatting) and I didn’t leave bang on 5pm. (They often left early) I also met all my deadlines and they didn’t like that either. When I was hauled in to my bosses office to talk to him about it, I fed back my side of the story. The boss of the LA team got the feedback and thanked us for drawing attention to the slacking.

[WombatChocolate]

I think you have to care a bit less about what people think of you, to be honest. Grow a slightly thicker skin and don’t be so bothered by the inevitable bitchiness that is out there, unless it is really serious.

Don’t give it headspace. Don’t assess your own performance based on what they said...they probably bitch a bit about lots of people. Don’t be overly upset or drop hints to show you heard what they said....that is taking far more notice of it and giving more reaction than it deserves. Just move on. Don’t allow yourself to wallow in self pity about it or indignation about their behaviour. It’s not nice, but lots of not nice things happen that we just have to live with, rather than being outraged or reacting and demanding recompense to each one. Just move on.

And all those fuelling the Op’s upset and saying she should complain or seek revenge, I suspect they haven’t had seriously senior roles in the workplace or big complicated issues to deal with....these kind of petty little behaviours honestly cease to seem important or take up more than a few minutes thought, when you’re having to deal with much bigger workplace issues and to be thicker skinned. It’s not a nice thing to happen...but these things do happen. Little is gained by dropping hints to show you heard or seeking little revenges, apart from you hurt yourself by dwelling on it and becoming bitter.