So, my workplace is having some problems. Without going into too much detail, one of my coworkers has been taking a lot time off for personal reasons, and my boss has been having a hard time finding people to cover the hours. I can take some of the work load, but not all of it. On top of that, there will be some scheduling changes in the future. I’m sure my boss and coworkers are stressed out about it. The heat we’ve been having lately could be a factor too. The point is, my coworkers don’t seem happy.
My concern is with the treatment I’ve been receiving, and the nagging suspicion that my co-workers are being passive-aggressive towards me. Lots of last-minute demands. Lots of really vague demands. Not providing me with the materials I need to do my job.
I’ve been really anxious about it because I don’t know whether this is the result of something I’ve said or done, whether I’m being scapegoated for something, or whether my coworkers are lashing out at everybody else like this too. I have been through situations like this before, but I have never figured out how to read them. All I know is that these things usually lead to me losing my job over something.
I can’t really provide more context, because this is a tiny island and I don’t know whether any of my coworkers might be reading this. All I can ask for is really general advice. Do you have any tips for how I might go about identifying what the situation is? Or any advice for weathering the storm? I’ve already been making preparations in case I lose my job for some reason, but I hope it won’t come to that as I generally like my job for the most part.
Yeah this is the kind of passive aggressiveness that is common in the Taiwan work place
You have probably done something that you don’t even know or interpreted that way. Nobody is going to tell you exactly what you have done and it’s probably something fucking minor
Office drama is really a pain here. In the US, you could tell a colleague to piss off and be friendly again the next day like nothing happened. Here even a mild slight causes a complete collapse in working relationships, and you need to come on bended knee with a bunch of overpriced souvenir snacks to patch things up.
At my first summer job in the US as a college student, another long-term employee got mad at me for something small. The next day I channeled my inner Taiwanese and brought her a box of fancy chocolates.
THE WHOLE COMPANY found out, and I became a super star. Everybody I walked by gave me a standing ovation.
I’m going to guess you have IG contacts with one or all of your co-workers. You’ve posted fun pictures of you doing things at the times you’ve said you weren’t free to cover for the sick one. Or, someone pissed on the staff bath toilet seat and blamed you.
Yes keep in mind some work colleagues will Google you. Also a small slight which means slight for you can be huge to them. Also positions in the work place can be to them extremely important. Even say asking a boss if they can pass the scissors can be taken as a slight. For westerners generally you can talk to your boss almost like a friend , but some bosses in Taiwan or even managers do not like that at all. They may have been working up to that job for 15 years and don’t take likely to a new employee saying something like “Can you just pass that stapler over.”
I did know someone that brought a pizza in as a make up to the staff for a small slight and they declined the puzza
I think you just keep doing your job professionally. Don’t worry too much. Say , please , thank you and carry on. If you’re valuable they’ll keep you and those easily offended types will get offended by others too and will forget about your slight , as it will be replaced. Someone else will become enemy number one in time.
Is it something that changed recently? If yes, you probably made something or make someone lose their face and now there is an act of revenge.
As suggested by others, check how your co-workers treat each other, maybe it is something else going on in the company and you actually don’t know.
If you are the only foreigner in your company, the rest of your co-workers will always think your salary is the highest one, and you don’t work as hard as they nor your work is really good. If that is the case, just do your job, when someone comes with demands without giving you all items you need to execute your job, say so and wait until you have everything that you need.
If you notice your co-workers are ignoring you, or your boss/team is not giving you work to get done and put you aside, that yes is a big red flag, otherwise it is just office drama and it will pass in 2 or 4 weeks
When was the last time you worked in the US, and in what sort of environment?
