I always thought of it like this: if a workplace makes you feel devalued or is toxic (gaslighting and ranting about you behind your back), you quietly find new pastures.
Now, however, I think this is the wrong approach: why do I have to accept they bully me? I should defend myself. And doesn’t the manager have to make sure a workplace ain’t toxic? Instead of quietly looking for a new job next time this happens, wouldn’t it be better to confront, document and escalate instead of letting it go? even if HR only exists to protect the company and not me.
If HR and manager do nothing to address the problem, wouldn’t it be a better strategy to start working the least possible and let the company fire me, while looking for another job?
I have only ever worked in germany so thats all I can talk about from a legal perspective (not a lawyer):
If people bully you and you can find evidence for it, the colleagues, maybe your manager and the whole company can be shit out of luck and you win. A lot of folks have successfully sued (which is very cheap in germany, you dont even need a lawyer at first) for „mobbing“ (bullying essentially).
If one or more colleagues bully you, you collect evidence, confront your manager. They then have reason to terminate the offender if the evidence is strong.
If the manager doesnt act, you have reason to sue and get considerable sums out of the company.
But yes, if people go behind your back and oust you, they are in the wrong. Even if you did wrong, they should talk to you about it or involve management. Social ousting is never an acceptable reaction imo.