Protecting myself against coworker's accusations

[shri]

@tiredworkers - Curious, is this your first job out of uni? And how long have you worked at this place?

[tiredworkers]

It seems to me that personalities such as that of your CW flourish in larger bureaucratic organizations as many universities tend to be. Large companies...same. You may want to find a smaller organization... Also it's good if you are more responsible for individual projects so this kind of coworker has no impact. I work in a career where the work product is mostly individual output so any silliness by coworkers has had little impact on me over the years.

Also are you an expat and CW a local? Could be an unfortunate "us-them" dynamic going on...

Hopefully you can find something better, the money is not worth the aggravation...

Good luck!

Thank you! I was born and raised in HK but am from a different ethnic background. CW is originally from Sichuan, moved to America for a while where her children were born and came back to HK. She has no experience working in academia but, from what my manager has told me, she has excellent and professional communication skills in both English and Chinese for which she was chosen out of potential candidates for.

Yes, I believe I can work well in a team - have other people's back and be argumentative. I mean, that's what all the group projects were for right? It seems that she doesn't want to work with me. I have told her and my manager that I will not touch anything she has worked on anymore. She can work on her own thing and so will I.

[tiredworkers]

@tiredworkers - Curious, is this your first job out of uni? And how long have you worked at this place?

I started working beginning of May, right after my classes finished, so it's been 6 months. I was offered the position which i applied for months before, as my final year project was based on the same topic and was recommended to me by my supervisor.

The problem with CW, at least when she started to accuse me, in August. Before that I had her back on the mistakes she made (i.e. i did not report them to M because I felt that it was pointless to bring it up as I had pointed out the mistake and we had resolved it).

[shri]

- Do you have PR or are you local or on a grad visa type scheme?
- Leaving at the 6 month mark will not look good to your future employer. You don't have enough experience to get a salary bump. In the 16K range, if you do not have some specific skills (sounds like you're in a general marketing function) it is easy to find a job, but not easy to find a good job.
- Best to stay in the trenches for a little bit, pay your dues and try and network. Look for startups, smaller companies and don't be in a rush to quit.

[civil_servant]

Something similar happened to me when I first came to Hong Kong.

I worked for a a charity at that time. The environment was quite stifling and I felt a lot of frustration to the point where I questioned by own sensitivity. While the job did have some positives, I quit after 1.5 years. That was 10 years ago and I've never felt those frustrations since even though I've worked in highly-demanding environments. My advice would be to move on.

[jonastainine]

Document each and every episode in case as it happens in a diary you need to take this up with HR. You need to be tough else leave. This is HK office politics and will not end here.

[shri]

Sure, add destruction of company property to the list of things your employer to put on your next reference check.

[Edwardstorm]

I have no clue what she is doing half the time and she has spent almost 3 months working on the same thing while I have completed several tasks.

This is something you will find in many office environments in Hong Kong unfortunately. Many folks spend long hours at work but accomplish little to nothing.
If you can.... just pack your things and go, it is not worth fighting this with an incompetent manager.

[Drunken Master]

Sounds like she perceives you as a threat that one day will take over her position.

If you would like to stay working with university see if you can get a position in another department or faculty.

[MandM!]

Sounds like she perceives you as a threat that one day will take over her position.

If you would like to stay working with university see if you can get a position in another department or faculty.

Yeah her position sounds like a dream job