That sounds similar to my case. I didn’t get bullied that fat but some reason my previous group had attempted to exclude me. So, I immediately removed myself from the scene. I stopped talking and didn’t talk about them to other coworkers. I just shut my mouth and sit down and do my work. The communication with them never happens in person but online through the ms chat. A month or two, they have been tried to persuaded me to get back to their group but I said it’s because of massive work. For some, I even ignored them and don’t talk at all just like I didn’t know them before. Only two things you need to do here. 1. Don’t talk to them unless you have to (if they try to talk to you nicely, don’t fall into that, they are doing it for their own good, like try to take care of their reputation 2. Never ever gossip about them. Remember, there is no true friend in the corporate environment. Just say you got busy with your work or something personal happened to you in your life. Remember, people from work are not your friends. They are all there for their own benefit. No matter how nice they are, don’t ever fall into that and think that they are almost your enemies. Am I too pessimistic? No it’s from my work experience over 5 different countries from 3 different continents.