It may be that people are bothered by seeing someone take decisions differently than they do, they might feel their own decisions being implicitly questioned, so they might be reacting in a way that reaffirms their own values.

In my last job, I rarely worked overtime. My coworkers always gave me a hard time about leaving on time. Always claimed I was leaving early. They had absolutely no reason to treat me the way they did because none of them were in a management position.

A lot of them gave me a hard time for doing a job differently. I was quicker, more organized and often my work quality was just as good or sometimes better than their work quality.

Reflecting on their behavior now that I’ve left, it’s quite clear to me that me prioritizing my personal life over work made them insecure about themselves. Not listening to their forced, unasked and unwanted advice made them insecure about themselves. Working in a way that made sense to myself made them insecure about themselves.

Guess what trend I started to piece together long after I left that awful place. When someone defies another person’s personal truth or reality, that has the potential to cause the other person to feel insecure about themselves. It seems like they can’t stand that someone else is able to do the things that they themselves are afraid of trying in the first place. Those people would rather drag you back into the same hole they are in. They don’t want your personal success or happiness to remind them of their own personal insecurities.

I’ve spent the last few years learning to be comfortable in myself when dealing with other people’s insecurities. Nothing I do will ever satisfy insecure people so I try my best to not let their words bother me. Their insecurities and feelings are not my problem. With those people, I end up giving them short and vague responses until they leave me alone. They don’t deserve anything more.