I (24F) was fired from my federal job in February of this year. Prior to my firing I had great performance but struggled in the workplace culture. All of the people my age hung out together without me, and the people older than me seemed not to trust me with anything despite me being very skilled and capable. My supervisor has always been on my side but my other coworkers not so much. When I was fired by the administration I struggled financially and mentally; I was so exhausted and stressed as expected during job loss but everything was amplified by the narrative around federal workers. My only support system was my boyfriend- my family and friends are big Trump supporters. When I was reinstated I arrived to find that most of my duties had been reassigned. A current employee (24F)was reassigned to my group and proved to be deficient in some of my skills but more skilled in others. Above all, my supervisor, boss, and other coworkers really love this person and think she is intelligent. I have always had this feeling that people think I dumb or incapable so it hurt to come back to an environment where I was basically replaced.
Two of my coworkers in particular (50sF) (30sM) pretended to be supportive but had a clear admiration for the new girl. I learned today that those two coworkers have been meeting with my new coworker on a project I asked to be on multiple times. She asked one time and was added to said project doing much higher level work than me. Everyone is impressed and I have been relegated to a very low level task wise. I learned that during my absence some data I worked with was lost and (30sM) assumed that I never completed it. Upon my reinstatement I learned that this assumption reflected poorly on me and that I could no longer be trusted. I tried to explain myself today but no luck. My supervisor still thinks it is not a big deal and says my performance is excellent, but my failure to participate in this project (and new girl’s success) places her well ahead of me in our field early career-wise. I am slowly learning that (50sF) has been gossiping about me to other employees, calling me annoying and lazy to distract them from her poor performance. At this point should I just leave? I feel like I am getting more depressed and people are losing faith in me
Tl;dr fired fed employee (24F) struggles with return to office after reinstatement especially in regards to relationship with coworkers (24F) (30sM) (50sF)
Comments
It’s fine to leave a job that where you don’t feel successful at and don’t vibe with the workplace. I’m not sure how easy it is to find other work in your field, but considering the larger political environment, it is probably a good idea, anyway, to update your resume and see if anything in the private or nonprofit sector might be a good match for your skills.
If you decide to stay, you need to stop speculating about how people feel about you, and stop comparing yourself to this other girl. Let gossip be gossip. Keep your head down and do your job. Or ask your supervisor — or better yet, a mentor in an adjacent area — about the best ways to build up the skills in the areas you want to develop, and take on the those new challenges. It’s not good to have one person as your only support — cultivate hobbies where you can make friends who share your outlook on life. Be happy.