I was hired by a very senior person in a role that agency didn't have.
I relocated from one country to another for that role.
The idea?
Work "in team" with the head of the department to support with my different range of skills.
The only problem: the head of the department either wasn't informed or wasn't game to share the spotlight.
Not that I wanted any, I'm quite an introvert and more than happy to be in the background but given I had more digital experience than him, everything digital became my remit, and everything related to the digital space fell on my desk.
At the same time, said head of the department was very vocal about wanting a "horizontal" department with no other direct reporting. A very simple tactic to leave me alone, isolated and drowning in work until I dropped one - relatively small, to be honest - ball.
That opened the gates to the open gaslighting in the office.
I became the weak link: it didn't matter we had just won one of those agency-changing pitches, and that the client explicitly pointed out the good work done in my area of expertise.
Nothing mattered.
Karma is a bitch though: I moved onto another gig, got surrounded by beautiful people and a great atmosphere and quickly rebuilt my self-respect and confidence.
One year down the road we faced my old agency in another massive pitch. We won the account. Possibly the best revenge possible: doing good work like they didn't let me do.