I've automated a couple of small processes that are used by several people. And I've also added some pretty solid error-handling in our automation code in order to automate a pesky app that has a very brittle UI.

And while few people are appreciative of my efforts there are a few who're constantly trying to pull me down or belittle the work.

• "Did you use a third-party tool? What's the license? No you cannot use that. Remove your code immediately" (we do actually allow that license and when I point out other third-party tools with the same license in our code then he lets it go. Only to latch on to something else)
• "It's not needed. We don't use that process/feature" (when in reality people are using that feature)
• "You have written this wrong. That is not how you write X. It is more efficient to write it as Y." (Adding unnecessary over-optimization that doesn't improve performance but just makes the code complex and difficult to read )
• "Why are you wasting time automating this? We can do it manually just fine. Instead, have you finished task X, Y, Z?" (and I'm not lagging behind on any other tasks)
• "Have you created documentation? A wiki page with all info for this tool? Please finish that first. We must maintain good quality standards. It is very important." (When I just finished testing it after creating it)
• "Have you followed all the coding standards / checkstyle?" (Of course I did. I always do. Background - I'm the one who added the checkstyle to the project when I noticed we don't have any. But he just has to make a point of showing that he cares about it)

It's not about solving these individual examples. These incidents can keep varying. The fact is that there are a few teammates who're repeating this behavior over and over again - trying to find faults or pull down my work in some way or the other. Always trying to find some way or the other to criticize but never appreciating anything I do or say.

I find it difficult to send out an email informing people of the new feature/tool that I've created because my stomach hurts at the backlash that I'm going to get from these guys.

How do I deal with teammates who keep trying to hold me back and bring me down while I'm going the extra mile?