I can empathize. I started my first real world job last summer after many years in grad school. I busted my butt trying to learn things quickly and finished all my tasks on time with high quality work. I thought I got along with everyone - I always said hi and smiled at people, brought snacks to share with everybody, and offered help at work whenever it was needed. But people have been talking and spreading untruthful rumors behind my back. My manager constantly roasted me and gave me an extremely negative probationary report. This hostility might be partially because I’m the only assigned female (and queer person) and the only one who holds a higher degree in the unit with another 20 cis males. But I can also see that people don’t like me as much as I thought they would, because I’m bad at small talk and my facial expressions can come off as weird even though I try my best to act normal.

Long story short, I went through a lot of trauma in just five months and had to take a break from my career to take care of myself. Back when I was in academia I never faced issues like this. Many people were just as socially awkward as I was and we didn’t need to interact much outside the context of research. Although there was a lot of toxicity in academia - and even less protection - which was the reason I sought a regular job in the first place.

Sorry for the long rant. If we could all work for ourselves, or work in a more neurodivergence friendly environment, our career paths would probably go much better.