Colleagues not acknowleding me as part of the team - AIBU?

[ngte5y]

I've been at my company for a year. I joined a new team earlier this year, but got moved off it for the summer due to it having a low workload. I moved back onto the team in September.

The team is kind of divided into two - one side does 'small' projects, and the other does 'big' projects (for the sake of simplicity in this post I'm just saying big vs small projects). Big projects team and small projects team have separate internal meetings and there are different people working in the teams (although some colleagues work in both).

When I returned in September there had been quite a lot of changes to the team, including some new colleagues so it all felt quite new again to me. I started working on small projects and got settled into that, felt welcomed into the 'small projects' team.

I finished those projects off and am now working on a 'big project' with a senior colleague of mine. My project is part of 'big projects', but whilst the senior is overseeing the larger scope of the project, I've been told by my manager that I'm taking ownership over my part and it's my project to drive forward etc.

However, the 'big projects' team aren't included me in anything. It's like they either don't realise I'm now working with them, or they just forget to include me. There's been a few things:

• Feedback on my project came back from the client and nobody forwarded it onto me whilst the senior team member was away, then when the senior team member was back they were told the feedback and they then had to relay it to me (this never happens in other projects, and was a waste of time as it meant I was late to start taking in the feedback)
• I've only been working on the 'big project' for around 3 weeks, but everytime I go to join the weekly internal meeting I find it's been cancelled or moved but nobody has told me. This week the meeting got moved and on Teams every member of the 'big projects' team was tagged to let them know apart from me. It makes me feel like I'm not supposed to join the meetings, and should just have the senior staff member tell me things second-hand?
• I sent a message about my upcoming holiday that interferes with my project's timelines and it got ignored with nobody even acknowledging it

I know they all sound like little things but I feel like nobody from the team even acknowledges me as being part of it. I'm junior, but still expected to be in meetings and leading my own projects.

AIBU or do I need to be more assertive? I have a meeting with my manager tomorrow and I'm not sure if I should bring it up, or whether I just need to somehow assert myself

Bring it up with your line manager, it needs addressing even if to clarify if you are to attend meetings etc.

A good manager will have spotted if there's tension from longer standing members, and I would hope would be encouraging them to welcome old or new team members into the fold. Some people really react badly to changes in staff, sometimes because of their own insecurities or perceived slights.

You raising the point in a constructive non blamey way will hopefully soften team members who may be unknowningly or deliberatly being cold.

I think YANBU to be a bit miffed, but you also need to be more assertive.

This seems very unlikely to be any kind of malice against you, and very likely to just be poor team organisation. Things like team meetings are often scheduled to be reoccurring, or by copying & pasting the previous attendee list, so someone would have to manually invite you. Just mention to the meeting organiser/scheduler, "Please can you add me to the list for future team meetings.".

When you do get to the next team meeting, make sure you introduce yourself and your involvement in that project (when appropriate) and let people know that you'd like to be contacted with any updates from the client.

People are busy with their own stuff and if it's not their main focus they probably just don't put a lot of thought into it. It's only been 3 weeks. Keep the communication up from your end and they'll catch up.