Office Politics Cost Me My Job

[slubberdegullion]

About a year ago I had this great job, great pay, good boss, and I was pretty damn good at it.

 

But office politics killed it.

 

One of the admin assistants to my boss ensured that my work got to him late (even though I was finished with the work in plenty of time), she lied about me, talked about me behind my back and spread false rumours about me.

 

The boss believed her, even though I had written documentation to back up my claims of innocence. I was then asked to resign, which I did... probably a bad move, but I can't change that now.

 

I've contacted the boss once since my departure to try and tell him the truth about how his admin assistant f*cked me around, but he refuses to either listen or return my call.

 

So, I've written off the chance of ever getting my old job back, but my question is this: How do I go about leaving this behind me? I've tried the forgiveness route, but it's come to nothing, and when I think of the situation it still pisses me off.

 

Any suggestions as to how to deal with the poison left by office politics that cost me my job?

[moimeme]

I've been victim of office politics a couple times. People worry that I'm so good I'll take their jobs so they set out to undermine me. I've sat and listened to people lie about me - and they'd tell me afterward they did it on purpose. And the really sad thing is this happened around jobs that weren't even high-end!

 

There are some folks on this planet so insecure and frightened that they attack others in order to keep the upper hand. It's miserable when you run into them, but even more so when management believes them.

 

Be overjoyed that you're out of a place where the management would mistreat you because of the words of an admin assistant. She did you a favour by revealing to you what a bad place that is to work. Jobs are like SOs - who needs one that mistreats you? Be glad you're out of there and move on.

[Tony T]

"Any suggestions as to how to deal with the poison left by office politics that cost me my job?"

 

Deal with the present, not with the past. The best way to move past this is to become gainfully employed in a job that you love where there are people who aren't scumbags like the one who made the false accusations against you and the ones who believed them. See this as a golden opportunity to soar to new heights in your work life. Weighing yourself down with anger, resentment, etc. about your old job is not where you want to be.

[lindya]

Any suggestions as to how to deal with the poison left by office politics that cost me my job?

 

Yes. Don't know what your profession is, Slubber, but your main goal now should be to use this nasty incident for no purpose other than to fuel you to get to the top of it. The best way to show your former boss that he was wrong is definitely not to get hung up on some admin person. He'll only dismiss you as small fry if you do that. What you need to do is focus on getting yourself up to a level where he might have to encounter you in meetings. As an equal - or, even better, in a situation where you have the business advantage.

 

Career-wise, anger can either be a disaster or it can provide the most fantastic motivation you'll ever have. The workplace IS political. No getting away from it. If someone's out to undermine you, then you need to stay aware of that insofar as you can sidestep their attempts to make you or your work look back. Other than that, dwelling on it is a waste of the very energy that a workplace saboteur is trying to sap from you.

 

To hell with forgiveness. You were badly treated and there's no law that says you have to forgive people for doing that to you. There's also no law that says bad treatment by one employer will prevent you from moving onwards and upwards with another. Most people will have had a bad experience at some point in their careers. Future employers can be very understanding of that. What they're less tolerant of is employees who, when given a chance to excel, fail to do so because they're weighed down by baggage from previous jobs.