Have you been undermined at work? struggling to cope...

[Startingagainandagain]

I posted in 'Work' but did not get much traffic.

Has anyone else has been undermined and isolated at work and how did you deal with it?

I work for a charity and since I had an episode of sick leave (I have a long term health condition that comes under a protected characteristic) and came back to work some co-workers and my manager are regularly undermining me:

• I am not invited to some meetings that touch upon my area of responsibility (marketing/comms)
• People with no experience in my area of work are suddenly trying to bypass me and produce their own marketing material that looks awful & does not follow our brand guidelines (Wong colours, random images that could break copyrights, slogans that don't match our organisational agreed key messages)
• When I pointed out the above to these team members they then went to my manager and accused me of being 'abrupt' and 'unhelpful'
• My manager is not backing me up on this and instead blame me for being 'too rigid'' and saying it is my fault that people are going behind my back, but could not give an actual example of what I had said that could be considered 'abrupt'
• I never had this type of feedback for my work until now or in the many similar roles I have held in the past
• Now when I am in the office (I am based remotely most of the time) these people are now ignoring my attempt to make basic small talk when I come in. I am the oldest and only disabled person in the team and I am starting to think this has a lot to do with it too.

This is not a great organisation and it has a high staff turnover. Several new starters in my team just disappeared suddenly during their probation period for example and my predecessor in the role was on long term sick leave and did not even leave handover notes so I now realise a lot of this screams toxic work environment.

I would be really interested to hear about people who have had similar experiences and managed to get themselves of these situations so I can stay positive!

Unfortunately if you have a shitty manager it’s really difficult to address these kind of issues. I think you have three options:

1. You could go to your managers line manager or HR but this doesn’t necessarily mean things will improve. It also potentially could create more hostility but depends on your organisation set up.
2. Look for a new job, I stayed way too long in a charity that had increasingly poor management at all levels because I felt I’d given too much of myself to give up and ultimately ended up making myself ill.
3. You remain polite and professional but call out every snub, oversight or dig in an email (always have a written record) along with supporting evidence eg attach the branding policy or a copy of your job description. Be so rigid that they can’t do these things without making themselves look bad. Ensure you have regular reviews where you highlight these issues, again ensure these are written down. These people are not your friends, you do not need to like them. It doesn’t make for a great working environment but maybe they’ll learn that you know what you’re talking about.

I wish there was an easy answer but given that you’ve tried the direct approach already I can’t see that there is anything more than I’ve suggested that would work in reality. Best of luck

Thank you @NZDreaming for the feedback.

I am job hunting so my preferred solution is definitely to get out!

But I also like the points you made in option 3. I can use that while I look for a new role :)