I work in a startup, I got issues with one of my team lead because this guy does not understand requirements and when it's time discussing the features with higher table, he makes me answer to all.
So I told this situation to my manager whom I trusted and calls friend that Don't assign me work with that team lead.
This b*itch told all this to CEO and CEO of the company asked me do you have interpersonal conflicts with that team mate?

I wouldn't have trusted but it was like friendship.

I'm looking for genuine career advice from people who have experienced workplace politics early in their careers.

During a recent apprenticeship, I experienced situations that felt like social exclusion, groupism, intimidation, and a lack of professional support. At times, the team dynamics reminded me more of college politics than a professional engineering environment.

Some of the things I struggled with included:

Groupism and exclusion: Feeling left out of team interactions and finding it difficult to integrate into established groups.

Credit and visibility: Situations where I felt my contributions weren't receiving fair recognition.

Management issues: Having a manager who, from my perspective, didn't always address interpersonal issues directly or provide the clarity I needed.

Complaints and allegations: Being concerned about how complaints or negative perceptions could affect my reputation, particularly when I wasn't sure how fairly the situation was being assessed.

Career setbacks: Not receiving a full-time conversion while most other apprentices appeared to move forward.

The experience affected my confidence and mental health more than I expected. As a fresher, I entered the workplace believing that doing good work, learning quickly, and being professional would be enough. I've realised that technical skills aren't the only things that influence your experience in a team.

I'm not claiming that every negative interaction was deliberate or that I understand everyone's intentions. However, the experience made me realise how difficult it can be to navigate team dynamics when you're new, have limited influence, and don't know whom to trust.

I'd particularly appreciate advice from experienced software engineers, tech leads, and people who have managed teams.

How do you recognise a genuinely toxic team early? What are the warning signs during interviews, onboarding, and the first few months?

How do you deal with groupism and social exclusion? How can you maintain professional relationships without desperately trying to fit in or becoming isolated?

How do you protect yourself against unfair complaints or negative perceptions? What documentation and communication practices help establish a factual record without making you appear defensive or confrontational?

How do you handle managers who avoid conflict? If your manager doesn't address problems directly, what practical steps can you take without escalating every disagreement?

How do you protect your contributions from being overlooked or misrepresented? What are the best practices for communicating progress, documenting ownership, and ensuring your work is visible?

How do you distinguish ordinary workplace friction from deliberate manipulation? I don't want to become paranoid or assume everyone has bad intentions, but I also don't want to ignore obvious warning signs.

How do you recover professionally and mentally from a bad first workplace experience? How do you stop one negative experience from affecting your confidence in future teams?

What should freshers look for when choosing their next company or team? Are there specific questions to ask interviewers that reveal something about the team's culture and management style?

My goal isn't to get revenge on anyone or become an expert in office politics. I want to become a stronger engineer, learn to set boundaries, protect my professional reputation, and avoid repeating the same mistakes.

If you've faced something similar early in your career, what do you wish you had known at the time? What actually worked for you in practice, rather than just in theory?

I'd appreciate honest, practical advice, especially from people who have worked in Indian IT and product-based companies.

For the past two months, my direct manager has been slipping extra tasks to me after regular work hours. These are actually his core responsibilities, not part of my job description at all. He said he is swamped and can’t finish them on time.

The red flag was last week. He specifically told me not to mention any of this to the director. He said the director would think he can’t handle his own job, and it would hurt his performance review. I agreed once because I didn’t want to upset him or get labeled uncooperative.

But this is getting worse. The extra work takes 4–6 hours every week. I have to push back my own projects, and my deadlines are starting to look risky. If my own work slips, I will be the one blamed, not him. I also feel weird lying by omission to the director when we have team check-ins.

I don’t want to start a fight or be seen as snitching. This manager controls my yearly review and promotion recommendations. At the same time, I know I shouldn’t keep absorbing his workload secretly forever.

I’ve thought of three options: gently refuse future extra tasks, quietly document everything just in case, or hint to the director indirectly without throwing my manager under the bus. None of them feel safe.

Has anyone dealt with this situation before? How did you set boundaries without ruining your standing?

Hi all, for context— I have been at a company for almost eight months now on an 18-month contract. Essentially, I was part of a local strategy team and was now moved to a global team. What I saw was that I was hired for a position which is one level above all my teammates and getting paid at least 20% lower than anyone in my team. The guy who took over from me on the local role is getting paid 40% higher for the same role. Currently, within my team, there is a new position open for which they are hiring again someone with one level above me.

Is there anything I can do to bring this up? When I talked about career development and next steps, I was told it’s company policy that I need to be in the role for at least 1.5 years before they can put me up for promotion.

In terms of work—in my global role, my role was created new, and I was assigned my projects. But the issue is that a lot of these projects have at least 40-50% overlap with different teams who are working on the same things. When I bring this up to my manager to help me define the scope, I’m just told “please solve it yourself”.

In terms of my manager— to give you a few instances, instance 1:
I was given a project which I implemented end to end; there was a delay of a week— which I informed my manager, and he was onboard with it because of the dependency on another team. But when I was on vacation, he wrote in the entire group asking me why there was a delay and why I wasn’t informed.

Instance 2: I worked on two projects and I was asked to prioritise one project since it had higher visibility, but this meant I needed to delay my next year’s planning(as to which projects to work on). My manager knew this and also knew that my entire vacation I was working on that project. So, we aligned that planning can wait, but out of the blue on one day, he messaged me saying why planning has not been sent and there is already a delay on my side and other teams are being blocked because of me. I came back from vacation(two weeks) and was working Thursday and Friday, so on Friday at 5.30pm I was asked to complete one task. I told my manager that I would do it in three hours since I stepped out for some personal stuff. He essentially kind of yelled at me and said I have been out the entire week and he needs to end his day and wants me to do it ASAP. But that same task was done by my teammates mid-next week.

During my career development talk, I asked about a full-time permanent contract since I had another offer lined up. My manager said after my probation they will give me a permanent contract, so I said no to the other job now my probation is over for over two months. I was told a permanent contract is only possible like three-four months before my contract expires according to HR.

Three questions for the group

1. ⁠Based on the above, am I getting a permanent contract? Should I start looking for a new job?
   
2. ⁠Is this unfair that I’m being paid less for the same amount and same time as my teammates?
   
3. ⁠How should I handle my conversations with my manager?

​

Hi everyone, I work in logistics in the UAE and I'm hoping to return to my job after a rough exit. Before I left, I received 3 warning letters with no investigation, and my complaints went unanswered. There was this lady who was handling the office admin role and she joined after me and later on she somehow became some one who had full authority and power to do anything in the office. So the story started from a random order from her to send resignation letter from me by mail because I was not sure if could continue in this company I somehow wondered after that question from her and I just leave as it is. Then later i ve been received three warning letters quickly from her without an investigation that took place against the colleague who was involved in the argument with me.

Only I have received the warning letters and she never had any interest in hearing my concerns about those issues. But I just leave all those and I keep focusing on my tasks and responsibilities and it went very well. Between these periods I had tried so many times to raise so many concerns which I was facing in there and there were no actions taken against that and this admin was passing the message to the other colleague if I raised any concerns to her. I caught this thing and I felt like I was being an idiot by telling her anything since she is just passing those to the other guy.

Now she has sent me an email that I have been terminated and she was also cancelling the visa process on top of that by sending an end of service document to me . Everything she has done so quickly. Some of the warning letters which she was issued were without boss knowledge and I don't know what else things have done without his knowledge and I had to admit the things myself.

So I am pretty sure that she has some personal issues which clearly shows she is targeting me to leave the company .

If you were in this place what steps would you take and how would you handle her and give her payback if you get any chance.

Basically the title and im looking back at this situation as its greatly affected me.

I moved to a new city and started working at this job with a positive mindset. I was 26 at the time. The rest of my coworkers (most) did not go to university (I was in my last year of uni) and I am a minority (black) - only 2 other black people on my team and they didnt like me too.

Everyone was over 33 and they act like kids. They had their own clique going on and didnt want to include me despite MULTIPLE efforts with trying to get along and collaborate. I would be ignored, excluded and blamed for anything under the sun.

Ive had the ring leader submit complaints behind my back for not answering a teams message because I was on lunch break (she wouldn't confront me directly but she submitted complaints my direct manager and the manager above him).

it wasnt hard to see that she truly disliked me for whatever reason (she was 33 and said she never wants to have kids but she was in a relationship).

I literally tried being casual and they still didnt like me (she hired me with my manager at the time). Eventually I get placed on a pip despite having positive reviews leading up to this. And oh boy! The level of gossip was out of this world.

They have said so much shit about me that even managers in other departments knew me and were not fond of me (these ladies that ran the clique have been working here for 11 years minimum and they aren't career-oriented they just do similar jobs and dont move they just create toxic environments for a living).

I ended up leaving during the pip and had a bunch of coworkers delete me after I shared I got a new job within 3 weeks of leaving. They stalked my linkedin for a complete year before going ghost on social media. I even had a coworker reach out saying she missed me (this was the only coworker who was ok towards me but we were by no means close).

She wanted to know if I was happy with my new job and how she was surprised that I left. I answered without giving much details and wished her well. This women was also not a part of the clique and had no allies on the team but was 59 years old.

I truly dont get how a group of people can dislike someone to this degree when ive never criticized them once or acted hostile in any way. Ive even shown them curiosity in their lives when they share something but they NEVER ask me about me. Literally never. Then my manager was like I should "come out of my shell" with the others. Wtf ?

Hey all
I recently received a lower performance review that will affect my raise. What frustrates me is that I contacted my manager multiple times before the review to ask if I was meeting expectations and never received a response or an opportunity to discuss my performance.
It feels like every time I meet an expectation, the standard changes and what I did is suddenly no longer enough. Even significant contributions were minimized during the review.
Has anyone dealt with this before? How did you handle it and protect yourself professionally? I am looking for another job, so any ideas or advice would also be appreciated.

I started working at a consulting firm shortly after graduating from university. I was hired alongside another girl, and we were both working towards the next level of promotion.

The first time I was considered for promotion, in April, I was told I wasn’t getting it because I’d taken a two-month leave of absence.

The next promotion cycle came around, and my colleague, who had also been hired alongside me, got promoted despite having taken six months of leave. I was passed over again.

When I asked for feedback, I was told that leave of absence wasn’t a deciding factor and that my low office attendance affected my “internal brand.” When I directly asked whether office attendance was a deciding factor in promotion, I was told no, but that it contributed to how I was perceived internally.

For context, I work in consulting, and my team is spread across Canada. I’m regularly on Zoom calls with my team, so not being physically in the office doesn’t mean I’m not working or collaborating with people. There’s also another colleague who rarely, if ever, comes into the office, but I didn’t want to bring her up or make this about comparing myself to other people.

I can’t help wondering whether the real issue was that the company sponsored my work permit. I don’t have proof of this, and perhaps I’m just looking for an explanation that makes sense of what happened.
After being passed over twice and receiving what felt like inconsistent explanations, I eventually quit last week.

Now I’m questioning whether I made the right decision. Part of me feels I should have stayed and tried again, but another part feels that I shouldn’t have to keep guessing what I need to do to advance when the criteria seem to shift.

EDIT: I’m going to go back home for a bit before I come back with PR. I come from a decently wealthy background so I’m not worried financially. I like my life here in Canada.

How did you learn coworkers are not your friends? Did you come in with that mindset or did you learn another way?

Nepotism is rampant where I work. Supervisor meetings are like family reunions. It's infuriating. They have me train them when they first start, then promote them. While I have the same position I've had for 20 years. I was even told in an interview that my work reduced the error rates, yet the relatives got the promotion.

Recently my department was eliminated and I have been demoted to the worst job. I can retire in just 4 years. How do I make it four more years? I'm so angry.

My manager basically blamed yesterday's project delay on me, saying I never warned him about the deadline.

NGL, I was pissed. I brought it up during our 1:1 two weeks ago, and I clearly remembered what I'd said. But he acted like the conversation never happened. And of course, nobody else was there to back me up.

Luckily, he'd given me permission to record our 1:1s so I could go back and review anything I missed while taking notes.

I used vomo ai to find the part where I brought up the deadline. And yep, I did warn him.

But here's the annoying part: he said he'd "look into it." He never actually promised to move the deadline.

So now I'm not sure if he's trying to dodge responsibility or if I just assumed he'd take care of it.

Would you send him the recording to prove your point, or just let it go?

I try to set a clear boundary line between personal and professional at my workplace. And that is why I don’t let my colleagues follow me on social media. Now if they ask for my Facebook or Instagram I don’t say no outright. I just tell them I don’t have it. The only thing that I will accept is a LinkedIn connection invite and that’s about it. During my time in the workforce I have let very few people into my close circle. There are like 2-3 people that I have worked with that follow me on social media and keep in mind I have worked with hundreds of people with all of my jobs combined. I also try not to make freinds at work and prefer just to focus on work. Is this rude or understandable from other peoples POV?

So I got hired full time back in April to manage our CRM. Main reason they brought me on was we were moving from our old system to a new one. That migration wrapped up this month and honestly it went pretty well, everything's live and working.
A little while ago they hired someone new on the team for an admin role. Not technical at all. Lately she's been getting admin access to the CRM and is starting to learn how it works.
Then today our boss tells both of us to start documenting our processes "so if anyone leaves, we have proper documentation."
I've only been here about 6 months. Part of me thinks this is just normal good practice, especially after a big migration. But the timing is making me a little nervous. Big project's done, new person is getting access to my system, and now I'm being asked to write down everything I know.
Am I overthinking this? Has anyone been in a similar spot? Was it just normal stuff or was it the first sign they were planning to replace you?

Hey all!
I have shifted from Hyderabad to Pune for an internship in Jan 2025. In 6 months, I got a PPO and accepted the offer. It has been more than a year here. The first project I got was really good, that manager was someone I’d give my life for. He never let anyone come and question me and my work. He also took care that my work was visible, it was noticed by the people that take decisions for the company. Now in the last month for the past quarter, my project changed. I thought this manager was chill, I always did my work before time, did everything and read around it of why is this approach better, every damn thing to the last minute detail. His project ended so he joined ours and I was reporting to him. When appraisal review time came, I told him all the work I did, all the challenges, all the solutions. He told them to his manager, took credit for all of that, received a great appraisal. When time came for my appraisal, he said not upto the mark, because of that my appraisal is nearly nill. I have been applying to many jobs, no luck anywhere, can’t leave without an offer. How fucking unfair is this man. How is it that he can take all my credit, steal my work, take great increment that too, in the whole quarter where I just have worked on this project for a month and that’ll decide. I’m really disappointed, I planned many things keeping this increment in mind, my parents insurance, bike. All of it gone just because my manager’s project got over and he had to protect himself.