Feeling like ass

I've been on the receiving end of this. I worked in an auto shop coming with several years of mechanical experience but wasn't necessarily formally trained. Self-taught and helped master mechanics at several dealerships I've worked at previously that basically had me research more on my downtime. So, after a period of switching industries from security, I ended up at that shop. I was a little rusty and was learning all the stuff that THEY did differently (everywhere I went, people had their own methods of doing something to get the same end result). Anyways, I was this middle aged guy's target for his bullying: he's talked bad about me over minor things, downplayed me in front of customer implying I was an airhead, accused me of doing dope because we just weren't on the same wavelength I guess, and he tried desperately to get me fired by the shop owner and foreman, and what made everything harder is that I have one sided deafness so it's hard for me to communicate in loud environments like that. That only convinced him more than I was probably on something.

I stonewalled him and just continued to do my job for the clients that come in. That really pissed him off to the point he has his clique with one of the other mechanics to just talk shit about me, IN FRONT OF ME, when I've been kind enough to actually talk to and buy his daughter snacks while she waited for him to finish his shift.

But you know what? I found I wasn't the problem since my supervisors actually said I perform very well doing vehicle services and sales. But this felon had just gotten out of jail four months before I was hired, and he has a rap sheet as long as my arm. And he was trying to become an assistant manager of the shop too, but he had to learn the ropes as much as I did. I know his type, like I said I worked security and that included a detention facility a.k.a. jail. He was trying to put himself on a pedestal by putting me down and to manipulate people to believing he's way more capable than someone like me to run a business... because he knew he screwed up in his life and employers see that.

So, let this remind you, that your coworker may actually be a really great person and team member (especially since she hustles at her job and you haven't revealed anything negative about her ethic except for the gossipers). If it's true she doesn't know how to do her work, then that's a failure on management that's supposed to train her. But that's not quite right, since you've worked with her and things went smooth. So, these gossipers are bullying her for their own problems? That they have some sort of unrealistic expectations of how everyone should be? Who knows. But I guarantee you, they're failing in some sort of way and they see her as prey to lift themselves up or as a threat because she puts them to shame. Anyways, as far as what you should do, in regards of quitting or not, that's up to you and why you chose that job to work. But what you definitely shouldn't do is engage or encourage that gossip.