How to react on jealous seniors who are trying to ruin me behind back

Question

I have been working with few influential people in my team. You could say it as i was part of group whose influence on manager was too much. Everything was going good. As i was exceptional in my job i got support from everyone or at-least i experienced that.

Last year i got good raise which made them a bit jealous but it was all right later. After that our manager changed.

I pushed resign to look other opportunities and have been retained on good terms that i will get chance to work abroad with executive management.

Before my retention i did mistake of trusting them and telling that i might good chance to work with executive management abroad.

They showed me support on face but behind back started opposite process of how to ruin my opportunity and were trying to get me out of company. They didn't succeed. My new manager didn't got influenced by them but indeed their negative image was developed on manager. Now when no plan succeeded they tried to call me and show me that nothing has happened i mean they are still on my side.

Now the influential group thinks that my success is because of them and by going abroad it will ruin their opportunities. Its their assumption. People in this this group are 4 times more experienced than me but still see me as threat.

I have fear that they might try to manipulate executive management against me by gossiping and behind the back doing all kind of non sense. People in group are also pointing my small mistakes basically trying to put me down now in everything.

Basically the influential group is heck of manipulators and they manipulate everyone for their own needs as understood their tactics after year.

My manager is aware of their nature but the executive management who works abroad is not aware of their two faced nature.

I am not understanding how should i react and what should i do. Because they might keep ruining my image or manipulate people against me.

Answer 1

You generally don't become a manager without people skills (often they are more important than actual skills). It might be that the executive management is offering you an opportunity and not them exactly because the others are recognized as schemers, assuming, of course, that your perception of them is correct.

In general, office politics is hell to navigate and you can either become part of it and become like them or you can try to avoid it and let your abilities speak for yourself. Depending on corporate culture, both options can be beneficial or detrimental to your progress and it's impossible to recommend either option without knowing how your managers think.

My personal choice would be to let my abilities speak for myself and let others gossip as they like. If the company listens to them, I'd just quit and find a different company. If you don't have good job prospects, that might not be an option for you.