How to deal with a coworker who is sabotaging you passively ? AIW
Going to try to make this as short as possible. I joined a bank last year (back office not in branch) and showed up in a suit daily even tho there was no requirement to (it is an entry level analyst job).
People always noticed me because I seemed sharp both intellectually and appearance-wise. My manager liked me and I worked very hard to absolutely crush my daily targets. Two colleagues who have worked at this bank for close to 9 years (the guy is 32 and the woman is 29) were hired in this position 2 months before me.
They never wanted to include me if that makes sense. The guy was known as the "bully" in the group because he would openly (playfully) bully people on the team in team meetings and would set the "mood" but not everyone can do this, it wither lands or it doesn't.
He never bullied me openly but he and the woman (who are tight) never openly acknowledged my contributions. If I won employee of the month (they both already got it) he wouldn't say congrats, when I got 1st place for a case competition they both ignored it. When I got selected to do a 5 month internal contract they both didnt say goodbye or good luck when the entire shared group chat was only talking about it.
Fast forward a few months, the woman moves cities and so do I. We end up being on the same time and are considered the "experienced analysts". I show her around the office, help her get in the office for a good month (id show up early because her shifts were an hour earlier than mine and she had no way of getting in, I stood up for her when security was giving her a hard time, introduced her to people to have her settle in etc.
She discloses shes pregnant (she has a husband) and I texted her one evening around 10pm on a Sunday as I was preparing my lunch thinking about work "Sorry to text you late but try & see if you have some kind of neck rest you can use at the office tomorrow for your neck - might help mitigate the stress on your neck man". She cuts me off for 2 weeks (no hello, no bye, no eye contact, physically sitting elsewhere in the office).
She starts acting passive by ignoring my messages in the shared chat when we answer new hire questions, she doesn't collaborate, she starts speaking to new hires to the side rather than than openly when im present, when im there she doesn't say a word and if a new hire asks her something directly she asks them to write to her privately.
I messaged her after 2 weeks asking if she had 5 min and asked if I did something to her and she said I made her uncomfortable by texting her late at night and therefore created distance and said there should be some boundaries. I told her it wouldn't happen again and wished her a good day.
The behaviour still continues after this and even gets worse. She openly diminished my productivity numbers in front of the whole team and when I said that was quite petty and challenged her statement in passing she grey rocked me. This continued for about 4.5 months to the point where not only did my manager notice how im getting actively excluded, the coworkers start noticing it too.
She has completely stopped using the main chat unless she gets pinged by my manager more than once but when im sick and absent I log in the next day and see shes super active and joking with everyone but when I come back she stops using it.