SpiralOut Posted January 14, 2016 Share Posted January 14, 2016 (edited) Just wondering if anyone else has dealt with something like this. As I've posted in previous threads, I worked in a toxic work environment for several years and I recently left it. I am feeling better already, but the problem is that I still carry around this fear that people will be mean to be. Long story short, I have always gotten along just fine with colleagues in other jobs, most people I meet either like me, or they keep their opinion to themselves and leave me alone. That's fine if people dislike me, I don't expect everyone to. I just don't like it when they go out of their way to let me know how much they dislike me. At my last workplace a handful of people (mostly in my department) used me as their personal punching bag. I had to tell them off a number of times. They would stop for a while then start it up again. It was exhausting. There were SOME people who actually liked me, and were really nice to me, and that was fine. But there were some people who literally bullied me. It was partly why I left, actually. They were extremely sarcastic, snarky, blurted out rude things randomly out of nowhere, and flat-out insults. Whether I deserved it or not, doesn't matter. It's totally inappropriate to act like that at work. Up until that job, I had never in my life worked in an environment where that type of behaviour goes on in front of everyone's nose and nobody stops it. Two of the women were pulled aside (on separate occasions) for bullying people (not just me). It stopped things for about a month, then they started up again. I've always been shy - even before this experience - and now I'm even more on guard than ever. I am working a part-time casual job at the moment and people are so nice to me there that it catches me off guard. Usually I feel startled and take some time to respond to the most normal things like simply saying a friendly hello. I expect people to be mean, and when they are nice it surprises me. Is there anything that I can do to feel differently? I don't like feeling so jumpy. I don't have much of a social life at the moment because I'm afraid of people judging me and blurting out rude things. Seriously I am soooo tired of it that I would rather avoid people than risk getting out there (although I am forcing myself to attend a meetup group next week). Has anyone else dealt with something like this? Thoughts? Edited January 14, 2016 by SpiralOut Link to post Share on other sites
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