context: I’m a nurse with several years of job experience in several units.
I’ve always seen that in each unit there is a group who somehow are the ‘alphas’ in the unit and can make your life hell if you cross any of them, the kind of people a careerist would give attention and flatter if he wanted to climb the job ladder. I’m calling them alphas not because they’re the best academically, but the best organized with the best contacts, the ones who due to these contacts get to decide who gets promoted (friends) or ignored. And management trusts them because they keep shit working.
Where I am now this on practice means they get to enjoy a one hour pause while I do a 30 minute one.
I guess some of you would tell me now to pick my battles, not to be jealous, to do my job and go home and accept I’m employed… but it’s not a nice feeling. This has happened in every workplace I’ve been. People are tribal, sadly. This is also why I’m leaving the bedside, but people are tribal everywhere, so I’m sure I’m gonna find this everywhere I go, right?
It’s sad if I want to escape this I have to feed attention to people, to fake being something else, or have you found a better way?
As said in other posts, I’m an introverted so this would be another reason to find a job where I work alone?
I would guess there’s others at work who feel like you do about the alphas and the power structure. Perhaps gathering allies would be a helpful first step. Since the alphas keep things running and management obviously values them you should tread carefully.l though. If you can get viewed by management as someone who gets things done and knows what’s up they might be more open to changes you suggest, especially if you have a bunch of unhappy coworkers supporting those changes.