Human beings aren’t perfect. We can’t live or work in an environment there will always be one or two things happening around us, but it shouldn’t be too extreme to the point where it’s greatly impacting your daily activities negatively. Workplace sabotage is a series of malicious acts that negatively affect you at work and if care isn’t taken, it may even seep into your private life as it hinders your success. Sabotage at work can be quite scary but you don’t need to be agitated, all you need to do is to be alert. We’ve outlined the signs to know you’re being sabotaged at work and to make things easier for you, so continue reading to find out. Let us know about ‘Signs You Are Being Sabotaged At Work’
Signs You Are Being Sabotaged At Work:
It can be quite difficult to tell if you’re being sabotaged at work but if you observe everything happening carefully you will be able to tell. Some signs you notice when you’re being sabotaged are that you will be treated differently from your coworkers, you get delegated the tasks no one wants to do, your colleagues don’t socialize with you, you don’t get to contribute during important meetings or project and you’re laid off certain responsibilities you used to handle previously. Continue reading as we will detailedly explain the signs to know you’re being sabotaged at work.
Signs You Are Being Sabotaged At Work:
If for any reason, you think someone at work is trying to sabotage you then you should look out for the signs below. Let’s dive in.
You Are Left Out Of Important Conversations: When you observe that you don’t get invited to important work meetings where essential processes and important information relating to your work are being discussed, then
you should know that someone doesn’t want you to succeed at work. In addition, if you notice you get invited but it’s either the meeting notification came late, you’re given the wrong location, or even the wrong time not once or twice, then this is a telltale sign that you’re being deliberately left out of these meetings.
You’re Not Being Trained Correctly or Not Being Trained At All: One sign that will show you that you’re being sabotaged at work is when you’re not being trained to be able to do your work accurately and you get negative feedback and reprimanded because you didn’t do the work well. In some cases, you even get trained but instead of the proper and accurate work training, you get trained wrongly and your trainer is quick to report your so-called work errors to your manager or boss, then you should know that such a person is sabotaging you.
Sudden Workload Increase Without Tangible Explanation: Another sign to tell you that you’re being sabotaged is when the amount of work you do suddenly increases with no proper explanation as to why that happened. Assigning more work than you can handle to you means there’s someone at work who wants you to work inefficiently so they can have a reason to report you to your manager. Once you notice your workload is so stifling that it’s hindering your creativity and productivity at work, when it never used to be, that’s a major sign of sabotaging at work.
You Don’t Get Away With Even The Tiniest Mistakes: As an individual, you’re bound to make an error to two, and it’s possible to make certain mistakes at work, but your coworkers and boss should be there to correct you and tell you what to do and whatnot another time so you don’t make such mistake again. But if otherwise is yours, such that you get called out for any little mistake you make or even get humiliated because of it then that’s a clear sign that you’re being sabotaged at work.
You Don’t Get Credit For Your Work: If you don’t get credit for your long hours of overtime work on important projects that you did together with your colleagues, and others got credit for the work during your staff meetings then you should know that someone is trying to hinder your success. In some cases, a coworker or boss goes behind your back to take credit for your workout and tries to undermine your hard work and achievement. Then you should know the person is trying to sabotage your future advancement at work by preventing you from getting credit for your hard work and diligence.
You’re Not Given The Necessary Tools You Need At Work: A worker needs to be provided with the appropriate tools to improve work productivity and success. An obvious sign you’re being sabotaged at work is when you don’t get the necessary tools including information and learning resources that others are getting to perform their work duties well. Yet you still end up getting reprimanded or with disciplinary reports because you didn’t perform the task the way it should be done even though what you did wrong was a result of your lack of necessary tools.
You Feel Uncomfortable Around Your Coworkers or Boss: If you find out that you often get uncomfortable around your colleagues at work, you should know everything isn’t right. The feeling you get might have stemmed from the fact that they get too friendly for your liking, or constantly ask you weird questions to gather all the information they can use against you later. If you don’t feel like your usual self after conversing with any of your coworkers or are just generally uncomfortable around them, you should be careful.
You Get The Tasks Others Don’t Want To Do: Another clear sign is when you get delegated tasks to others. For instance, everyone has their duties, and suddenly you get stuck with some grunt task. But if you notice that you’re burdened unfairly with assignments at your level don’t get weak. At times, it can be that you get the tasks that undermine your skill when you’re much more capable of handling stressful ones than the person giving you such is sabotaging you.
You’re Losing Responsibilities: You don’t need to handle the bulk of the responsibilities at work to put you ahead of your colleagues, but generally, you should have certain responsibilities that you do at work. Once you observe that, you’re getting stripped of your usuals one at a time, which means your boss thinks you don’t have the skill sets to handle the task and can result in an unwarranted demotion. Whereas, not like you, it’s just that such a boss is trying to sabotage you and deem you less valuable at work.
Coworkers Lie And gossip About You: At the workplace, coworkers are supposed to be there for each other. But if you discover that yours lies against you to your other coworkers and even bosses, then you should know someone is trying to sabotage you at work. Aside from lying about you to others, some can go as fast as spreading false rumors about your personality and work and gossip behind your back. You ought to watch out as such a person is sabotaging you.
Steps To Take If You Notice Any Of These Signs:
Now that you know the signs that show you that someone is sabotaging you at work. The next thing is to know how you can protect yourself. The steps to take to guard yourself against sabotage at work include:
Have A Chat With The Saboteur:
Once you’ve signed that a colleague at work is sabotaging you, approach such a person directly. Calmly discuss the sabotaging sign you’ve seen come from the person and ask such a person to talk to you in person when there’s an issue with your work instead of tattling on any little mistake or reporting you to your boss. When you talk, in a non-confrontational manner to the saboteur and air out concerns, then the person will not have a choice but to step back since the individual now knows that you’re not shying away from addressing the behavior that hurt you at work.
Discuss With Others At Work:
After a one-on-one talk with the saboteur, some are likely to back down and leave you to do your things at work, but others might not. In this case, you should talk to your coworkers who have had similar issues with the same person or even another person to find out how they handled theirs, so you can adopt their method to protect yourself from sabotage at work. In addition, you can also talk to your boss and explain your concerns about the colleague sabotaging you and how it’s affecting your work creativity and productivity with facts, you shouldn’t go to your boss with only assumptions. Seek advice from your boss on how to handle such situations.
Actively Safeguard Yourself From Saboteurs At Work:
Asides from the communication path to solving sabotaging problems at work, you should also put up some safety measures to protect yourself from sabotage. You can do this by forming good work and social relationships with your colleagues so they can support you and not believe the lies and false rumors spread by the coworker sabotaging you. The coworkers you have a good relationship with will also deem it fit to check on you if you’re missing out on an important meeting or discussion. All your devices at work should be password protected to prevent unauthorized access from manipulating or stealing your files to sabotage you at work. Also, you should know who to trust at work, and avoid complaining or confiding in the working person as the person might become jealous and start to sabotage you to prevent you from succeeding.
Conclusion:
You can’t simply assume that someone is trying to sabotage you at work, but if you think someone is trying to sabotage you at work, then someone most likely is, and you need to know for a fact to be able to address it. And for you to truly know that someone is trying to sabotage you at work, we’ve discussed the signs you will see above, and to safeguard yourself, we’ve also mentioned the steps to take to protect yourself against sabotage at your workplace.
Frequently Asked Questions:
- What If It’s My Boss That’s Sabotaging Me?
If you notice that it’s your boss that’s sabotaging you at work and not any of your coworkers, the first thing you should do is to address your boss privately and air out your concerns in a calm manner, avoiding being confrontational. And if you don’t notice any behavior change you can go to your boss’s boss with facts that show your boss is sabotaging you and how it is affecting your work for the organization.
- What Are The Signs That A Colleague Is Trying To Let You Lose Your Job?
If you feel like a colleague at work is trying to get you fired, you should look out for certain things to confirm if that’s what such a person is trying to do or not. Some of the things you will notice include: the coworker giving you wrong information and advice deliberately to make you look incompetent in front of your other colleagues and boss. The coworker is always around you and keeping tabs on you.
- How Do I Deal With A Sneaky Coworker?
Once you have identified the sneaky coworker, you need to stay away from such a person, ignore the coworker’s behaviors and keep a record of all the person is doing to you. In addition, you should always maintain a professional demeanor and build good relationships with your other coworkers.
- What does it mean to have a harmful colleague?
It means one who is impolite, pushy and shows weird attitudes. It would appear that they are never content with both their status and the work that they are doing. It may manifest in one’s words, actions, and body signs, or even in their level of the productiveness of work. You ought to avoid them.
