Best way to deal with subtle undermining/bullying

[Greenfairydust]

I have been in a new job for 6 months. it was fine initially and my team/managers are great.

However I had to regularly deal with another department that requires support from my area (marketing/design).

A couple of the directors/heads of team there have started to find subtle ways to undermine me, including making negative comments about work I had produced for them in front of the CEO , excluding me from emails threads that I should be copied into and also trying to drag my manager into the ''drama''.

I was especially annoyed about the negative comments to the CEO that my manger overheard and relayed to me as they were literally made up allegations rather than facts. Someone claimed I had produced material in the wrong colours which was not the case. I did state to my manager that I was concerned that they had found it appropriate to misrepresent facts to that extent, after showing my manager evidence that the claim was false, and that should this happen again I will make an official complaint about their behaviour.

I have started logging everything on paper with dates so I can have a trail if things continue/escalate. I have had instances of bullying in the past in another workplace just because I did not ''fit in'' (I am an older, disabled female who although British originally came from another country) and my heart just sank when I realised this could be happening again.

I have only good feedback from my manager since starting, passed my probation with no issue so I am really surprised as to why the other department would suddenly start this undermining campaign.

I am not planning staying in this organisation longer than another six months as a result of the back stabbing and because the job is not what I expected. I am also going to declare my long term health issues (my disability is not a visible one) as the stress of it all made me have a flare up this week.

I am starting to suspect that the person who was in the role before me was either driven out or could not cope with the stress of the role as they went on long-term sick leave for a few months before quitting and there seem to have been ongoing issues with staff turnover.

Any tips on approaching/navigating this would be welcome.

I am really annoyed as well that I will now have a short period of time on my CV in this job and that this will put off new employers.

I'm not sure a short period of time would put off a new employer.

"Unfortunately, although my own department is great, the culture in another part of the business is quite unpleasant and I don't want to waste my energy on that"

why didn’t you manager pick up on the pie and deal with it?

Personally I wonder if it would be worth dealing with the issues directly. Email them and state you have heard that it was discussed that you had made a mistake and resend/send evidence of your work to underline that you did not make a mistake. Then ask them for clarity around why no one had contacted you directly if it was felt a mistake was made and ask for them to please communicate with you directly if there is an issue with your work.

I think your manager should’ve picking this up though and asking why there are now multiple incidences like this happening.

@MathiasBroucek

Thank you for your feedback. Yes fingers crossed it won't an issue with other employers.

@Weallgottachangesometime

My manager did raise it with me and I immediately showed the evidence that what had been said was wrong.

But they were a bit vague as to the root cause of it which concerns me.

I did seat down with the person who started the allegation to go through everything again and showed them that the product had been designed correctly.

But the undermining is also coming from that person's manager so it is more than one person in that particular department causing problems.

But yes I do agree the best way forward is to remind them to deal with me directly if they have any issues.

Although I assume the reason they are not doing that is that what they are doing is because they intent is to me cause harm rather than address any real issues with the work produced.

Email & ask for specifics, with tangible supporting information (evidence) and feedback on how they would like you to do it in future. Copy all managers & CEOs in. Spin it as 'personal improvement plan' issue.