Colleague is spreading rumours that I slept with the director for a promotion. What should I do?
Context: I am the only guy in a department with 4 other ladies. 1 director 2 managers (Colleague 1 and me) 2 executives (Colleagues 2 and 3)
Additional background information: Colleague 1: Was in charge of my training and she was mostly unapproachable and was unhappy when I asked her to clarify certain processes.
Hence, I put in the effort to learn the ropes step by step by myself. She has always been unhappy with me as my director will openly praise my work and make a direct comparison with her work.
I received a promotion in July which was part of a counteroffer from the director. The director has made the decision as I had helped out a few big projects.
Last week, I overheard Colleague 3 chatting with Colleague 1; and she was spreading rumors that I only received the promotion as the director was sleeping with me. They have now formed a clique with Colleague 2 and stopped inviting me out for lunch.
After my promotion, they will deliberately stall their reports which lead to me chasing them for their reports for submission.
Even when submitted, the reports contained multiple errors which I had to fix as it would take too long to send it back to them for correction.
This has already happened multiple times and, they ignored my feedback saying, “Since you are so good at it, it would be better if you do it all by yourself”.
I have no issues with cleaning up their work but their replies are starting to get to me as it has become a frequent occurrence.
Please advice if I should stay on in the job or start looking for a new job? The notice period for this role is about 2 months. The bonus period is right around the corner in December as well, so I’m torn if I should stay until then.
I am at a loss about what to do and feel really unhappy about this situation since it happened about 3 weeks ago.
Having lost sleep over this betrayal since I thought Colleague 3 was a close friend of mine before I found out about the badmouthing.
Nowadays I have trouble sharing anything with colleagues from other departments as well, as the thought of being betrayed again still haunts me.
Understand the importance of mental health but I am afraid of being unable to find a job during this period, with the approaching holidays. Any advice would be appreciated.