Being hit from three angles at job; first and final, co-workers and lead, new supervisor has slapstick timing.
I'll do my best to condense this information but I could really use some advice on how to navigate and conduct this work situation/situations. I work in medical manufacturing for clarity.
Some relevant background information/ the first issue is that last year I had bought safety composite hard tip shoes online that were not OSHA approved, (an oversight on my end admittedly not knowing about osha coded PPE), and I had a coworker accidentally lower a 2-ton fixture on to my foot after clearing me too soon. I came out okay, zero injury as the shoes did work yet destroyed the boot. I was issued a first and final which last until late this year which is fine. Since then I have switched to a new home department in QA following a slow period at work and been more proactive. I've been working every day since the start of this year, I've been more cordial and involved with management and co-workers alike, staying later, take every opportunity to learn what I can, and importantly to my point have been doing the work of 2 people everyday. In the background admittedly I also feel extremely self conscious and stressed knowing I could be let go for anything with the final hanging over my head.
Into the second related issue, the departmental shift I work with I've been realizing? internalizing? Is mostly compromised of co-workers who under perform at the job. My lead has told me before and even recently that he wants me to do specific jobs and operations because he knows "I'll be committed to it, and won't goof off like the others on their phone or walk away from your work station all the time." Hes also showed me their production numbers voluntarily to confirm this for me. This feels like a performance punishment because it seems like all my hard work is being made to fill in the gaps of employees with bad behavior that he actually enables and refuses to address. This feels crappy as I've also been invited to hang out at bars and party with them and they pose like they're super close friends outside of work, despite him initially telling me he separates personal and work relationships.. Though it seems more one sided on my lead's end given that my co-workers also makes fun his lonely behavior behind his back. He also gets defensive whenever I've tried to gently question him or suggest switching on doing a day of lighter work if I've been running ragged all week/weeks straight. I've realized that his comment has made me slightly resentful of my co-workers who are openly playing into social dynamic with him. Taking extra breaks, sitting around a table and talking for hours about life, and him always coming to their aid when they're about to held accountable by someone else who catches glimpses of bad routinely/company violations by others. I don't want to carry on that resentment as they're people who are working the system, sort of speak.
Into the third related issues sorry, my company has promoted an old lead I use to work with as a supervisor from last year who is very proactive and has the same work ethic I carry. Its one of the things we connected on and hes complimented my hard-work plenty of times. I wouldn't say its not black magic or something but he always seems to miss said co-workers when they're breaking policy such as vaping in the building next to sensitive product, taking those long extra breaks, ect ect. Yet it seems whenever I decide to take a five minute "break" to stretch my legs after sitting for hours, or walk away from my station to get water (which is allowed), he always seems to appear randomly and sometimes questions what I'm doing and it stresses me out He rarely checks on the others. Case in point today, I was 20 steps from my work station helping out an old department co-worker I saw coming in who looked confused and after this supervisor asked me why I wasn't at my station semi-passive aggressively. I've been noticing those instances have been pushing him to monitor/check up me more because its what he sees vs what he doesn't. I don't particularly blame him for this but it feels like a real slapstick and irony on things.
I'm not really sure what my move is here as I feel like I'm a sort of sponge in all of this; absorbing the "slacker" bias from the supervisor, having the threat of the final hanging over my head, and cleaning up my departments production mess.
edit: clarity