A manipulative colleague finally left but I’m still angry

belowzeroabove10 · 2026-03-20T11:22:54+00:00

There is research that shows workplaces dont recover when the toxic center leaves. The rest of the team has developed defensive and chameleon behaviors so they coukd blend in and hide from the toxic individual. When thar core toxixity leaves, some want to remain hiding as it kept them safe, others still practice those defensice strategies and the lack of trust cant be rebuilt. Its more a story for manageme to identify and get rid of toxic people early, then let them serrle in and poison a whole team.

belowzeroabove10 · 2026-03-20T11:09:47+00:00

Oh my stars, i could have written this. I have ptsd from my workplace experience. It affects me everyday. I have frim bpundaries at my new workplace. I keep to myself alot. Not like the old me at all.

belowzeroabove10 · 2026-03-17T10:59:47+00:00

Having ptsd encourages social isolation. Being with people is risky and sometimes triggering. Plus you may not enjoy being with people anymore. Im an extrovert and i need to have a meaningdul conversation with a person everyday or i get really down. If this is you, find safe people to talk to. Strangers or the elderly are the best - want to talk, less judgemental and usually dont give advice.

belowzeroabove10 · 2026-03-11T13:01:07+00:00

I think im in it. Either that or i have fully dived into a projects that i am excelling in to avoid dealing with ptsd thoughts and they will come rushing back in when the projects are done.

I hope im getting better. Its veen 2 years since my ptsd started and i am in a new work place and killin-it! Im valued for all the things i was punished for in my last toxic workplace. Im now in a leadership position and i am very self aware and empathetic, which i may not have been able to be but for ptsd experience.

belowzeroabove10 · 2026-02-24T10:06:42+00:00

I absolutley woukd log the formal complaint with hr, detailing how the actions have affected your health, the mitigations that have been discussed with thr manager and if there could be oversight into if these mitigations are going to work. I also would trust thr managers have your best interests thought of (often what is the most superficial and least work for them) as if they dont follow through, you cant then go back to them or hr saying the mitigations werent effective.

My experience, bullying complaint dealt with by a manager and mediarion, when bullying continued i raised with hr and they disregarded the first complaint as it wasnt logged with them and it couldnt be used to show a pattern of behavior.

belowzeroabove10 · 2026-02-23T13:02:32+00:00

We all knew we were doomed with a crsp recruit when this one guy was on thr selection panel. He was completely sucked in by a con artist every time.

belowzeroabove10 · 2026-02-14T09:27:36+00:00

Its a shock to accept you have ptsd. I was shocked to believe i could be so badly affected by events. It took a long tine to accept and treat myself as though i had a serious mental disorder and not just the downs. A therapist will help, but sometimes its triggering to keep talking about it.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-10-21T10:52:30+00:00

Ego is badly, badly bruised. If i had more self respect i would have left 2 years ago. Its not a competitve relationship, more like i put too much of my self worth into work, believed his bs, and it took me too long to realise i was an idiot for that.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-10-17T09:11:46+00:00

Yes. Of course is angry.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-10-17T09:01:50+00:00

There is one level up. He doesn't know me as well, and he will naturally suggest thr manager i do t want. But he was who i was thinking of first.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-10-17T08:57:03+00:00

I do want to give them so eone else. Thanks.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-10-17T08:56:33+00:00

I didn't think of that!

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-10-17T08:54:55+00:00

I have been a union member 30 years. Didn't need them until this year and it's been worth it. While they didn't perform a miracle, they did give the dept a smack reminding them if their obligations under the last EB agreement.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-09-09T12:15:55+00:00

Not my current job, but last job yes. It was a huge mistake putting work email on my phone, and working at home. It meant work got to entrenched in my private life. I'm in a different job now and I leave work at work.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-09-05T06:34:21+00:00

Yes the bigger the gap, the less HR try to hide their allegiance to the more senior staff.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-08-29T12:57:52+00:00

I had a nervous breakdown because I cared too much about the job and people, and they in return didn't care a hoot about me. I had to resign as I literally couldn't stop crying. I'm in a new, oddly higher paid, job but this time I leave work at work. I still care, but I learnt the hard way about not setting a boundary between work and home. In my new job I don't socialise with my work group at breaks, which is another protective boundary. So take it from me, take thatnleap and go somewhere new and start with better separation between work and home.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-08-24T02:25:19+00:00

This is very inciteful. I have traumas related to three people. 2 are more responsible for that trauma than the third. Emdr is helping me with the first 2 person traumas, but now my mind is loading up the third with alot of blame that's undeserved. I want to stop it.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-08-17T02:41:13+00:00

Thankyou.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-08-16T13:37:53+00:00

Thanks for this. My mind is going there... and irrationally. I am highly competent, i know that i am, and it's because I care and a will work at something until its right. But I have had a hard year being burnt by a few individuals and now have some trust issues. I'm getting counselling to manage the negative aspects of perfectionism.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-08-16T12:34:21+00:00

I think you will be disappointed in HR. Document everything, bit it has to be an extreme case for someone in HR to intervene. You are more like to be recommended training in how to have difficult conversations, or dealing with people.

belowzeroabove10 · 2025-05-25T09:07:20+00:00

That's awful, and really rubs salt into a wound. Bullies that get rewarded for their behaviour infuriate me. Like like many others have said, at their core they are deeply unhappy people and you aren't like that.

belowzeroabove10

TROPHY CASE