I’ve been part of a new work environment for over a year now. The team is toxic without being dramatic. A stressful environment with huge workload that gets people air their frustrations in quite an abusive way: name calling, shouting, throwing a stroppy fit, etc. I have been recently asked to take over someone else’s full workload while they were on annual leave despite my having little experience in their field. I informed my line manager that I was not going to be able to meet the deadline despite my trying and included my team colleagues in. They all did their share in helping out but one in particular chose to have go at me twice on separate days. Then they turned 180* around and apologised saying that I was inexperienced in that particular task and that their frustrations were directed more at a different colleague who could but chose not to do much. My colleague apologised just after they saw management walking unexpectedly in. They later confirmed they thought I was going to make a complaint so basically wanted to beat me to it. Now they told everyone what happened between us and of course that they apologised. This really affected me and after returning to work I’ve had a few other colleagues telling me to chear up. Now I feel like I am being pressured to display a fake image and pretend everything is ok when it’s not. I had and have no intentions to take things further with management, but I cannot help being serious when I used to be the one smiling and cracking jokes all the time. Any advice on how to navigate this without sticking out like a sore thumb would be appreciated.