How can I make my office environment more pleasant?
There are limits to fighting office politics

Megan is having problems with her colleagues and her boss is definitely mistreating her. She writes, "I talked to my boss and asked why she is behaving like this, what is the problem but she took no heed to it and took it in a wrong way. No one is ready to talk to me, even my team mates who in the past asked my advice on everything under the sun are no longer talking to me; she made everyone against me. Once I had made a complaint of a colleague in my office for using abusive words while talking to me, who unfortunately is now the General Manager and maybe the one making all this happen. If this is the problem then how to turn this hostile environment into friendly one?"

We can talk about this at a later time (whether you did something that got you to this point), but at this point you are clearly a victim of an orchestrated campaign by your colleagues to force you to quit. You are simply in the wrong place at this time as far as office politics is concerned. This is not a battle that you can win easily even if it is no fault of yours. Here are some of your options:

• Simply quit, either if it is causing you too much stress and health problems or you are a believer in the philosophy that work should be joyful.
• Wait to quit till you are able to find another job if you do not have the savings to support you financially in the interim.
• Keep working and ignore what is going on around you. It is going to be somewhat hard, but if options above are not possible, then, this is the only way to ride it out. If you do your job well and try to stay above the politics, no one maybe able to hurt you. You will need a more spiritual attitude towards work, money, and people. Think of it just an unpleasant thing to do in order to move forward in life. Also try to remember that except for some very lucky folks, most workplaces are challenging in one way or the other. In your next job, it could be something else that will be painful, like a longer commute or lower pay or less opportunities for advancement.
• Do you have someone high level in the organization you are close to? She or he does not have to be in your department but this person maybe good to ask for advice/suggestions on what to do. Maybe this is all a great misunderstanding and this executive maybe able to facilitate a reconciliation.
• Fight it out by using the channels available in your company. For example, if a case can be built for harassment, with the help of an attorney, you should explore it, and in the meantime, you can ask for an internal transfer.

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