Just passing along some wisdom for those left in the awful L3H trenches...
I was hired into a somewhat cliquish department. All women. A few who thought they were the Earth's answer to everything, despite only having degrees from little mediocre colleges. For one, it was her first 'real job' anywhere... and it showed. She eventually becomes the department supervisor. Here's the tale of how it all went downhill...
Immediately, I was singled out because I stood out. Degree from a world-class university, with the real world skills to match. I thought quickly on my feet and knew how to solve problems. I worked hard, took no lunch breaks and didn't gossip. I didn't fit in at all in this department.
So, when one of the grasshopper girls decided to take a supervisor role, things became worse for me.
Remember the phrase coined by Lord Acton 'Absolute power corrupts absolutely'? This insecure newly minted supervisor (with no managerial experience) didn't want me around at all anymore.
She went out of her way to assign me accounts and projects that she failed on in the past but claimed that she once had all under control (despite customers telling me how much they disliked her and how glad they were that I now worked with them) and documented the most petty instances and called me into hour long meetings to discuss these so-called issues. One of her complaints was that I used a wrong comma in an e-mail and therefore, I was giving the wrong impression of what should have been more clearly stated to the customer. This woman wouldn't know the first thing about style and grammar, but she needed something to begin building a case against me. She kissed up to Human Resources and began to make this a visible complaint of the quality of my work. I fought back against this, pulling examples of her work that showed she always left things in a state of chaos and had no business giving advice on e-mail clarity. But, at L3H, this is seen as retaliation, believe it or not. I was blatantly told "she's the Supervisor, so we rely on her judgment."
Eventually, she withdrew her issues for a brief time, and without this pressure, I went back to doing my job well. She hated this, and started her games all over again. I've never met anyone who was so obviously threatened by the mere fact that I was a better professional. Sad, but true.
I resigned and took my skills and abilities to a place of real substance and where I am paid well (real insurance benefits!) and appreciated.
Beware anyone out there who thinks that this could never happen to them. It can.