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So I started a new job about 8 months ago and for the first week or two things were going quite well. I got on well with my line manager and made a good impression due to completing my work quickly and to a high degree of quality.

I had come from a workplace that had just gone through some of the same growing pains that I encountered in my new work place and was therefore well positioned to make helpful suggestions and generally make myself valuable.

Unfortunately around three weeks into my new role this began to attract the attention of a contractor and a business analyst on another team who began making various complaints to people around the office about how I was a slacker, not very good and other completely untrue statements. I attempted to ignore this at first, however, it kept getting worse to the point where I mentioned it to my line manager.

There was a minor investigation and mainly due to a third member of their team lying to cover the back of the first two nothing ever came of it. The false accusations continued with the business analyst even going behind my back to some senior managers and making the same statements. Now thankfully because I was so valuable in my job the accusations were having limited impact. However damage was being done and people around the office were generally beginning to believe the accusations.

The situation has been continuing like this for some months with some pretty horrible stuff being said about me however after the initial investigation they are being quite discreet and my line manager seems convinced that nothing is really going on.

How can I proceed? It is difficult to gather evidence when they are being so careful. Am I screwed? I don’t want to leave the job as it is so close my house I can walk to work in 10 minutes.

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  • I would start looking for a new job, not necessarily with the expectation of finding a new one, but just so you have a plan b if things go south. If they can do what they do, which is just actively harming everyone involved and noone does anything, don't shed tears for that company. – HopefullyHelpful Mar 27 '18 at 22:45
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Keep your visibility high. Provide status reports to your manager. Hopefully, eventually, word will come out what they say is not true and it will hurt their credibility. Senior managers see this stuff better than you might think.

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Stop playing the office politics games with them and ignore this whole "evidence" thing. Focus on your projects/tasks and report often to your manager. You are talking to your manager at least once a day right?

If you hear more of this gossip, bring it up with your direct manager. She/He will know what to do.

Ultimately your manager is the one that knows how you are doing and is the one that matters when it comes time for performance reviews. If someone above them thinks you aren't doing your job then they'll first talk to your manager. That will set things right.

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Start recording these if you can and report them to HR, not your line manager. When you report indicate that the individuals reporting this are being 'protected' by the another individual.

You could consider a lawyer, but it is hard to say if anything will come of legal action that will be in your favor.

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