Venom to venom
I was fighting a lone battle. I was allowed no more attempts to prove my worth to my colleagues, most of whom were polite and left me alone. But only Lilla made sure I remained at the bottom and pushed me further down.
There was a request from a vendor to send them product samples. The email was addressed to a few other managers and me. No one responded to it, so I picked it up and started the process. When I replied to them to confirm the request, Lila, the former protege of Mr. N, replied to all, telling me this was the responsibility of the operation team, and I shouldn’t have intervened. I would have appreciated her intervention had she not replied to humiliate me publicly or phrased the email in such an accusatory tone. Embarrassed, I replied only to Lila, explaining that I took the initiative because she wasn’t doing it. She wrote, “It is nothing to do with taking the initiative. Please don’t bother.” Most people shrugged off her attitude as general bluntness, but I found it venomous when directed at me. Was I overly sensitive, or was it intentional on Lila’s side? Either way, I chose to take it personally, and I often reacted to her aggression with aggression. My refusal to prostrate only aggravated the tension between us. But what power had I? The final blow was delivered at my last sales conference.