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?
First of all. I‘m not on the US so I‘m not familiar to the situation there. However, at will employment imo means that the state you work in could not give two shits about you and I would never stay there.
Besides that, education and writing stuff down helps to both understand your situation and improve it. If you just have a „feeling“ you might want to sit down and think about it. There might be different things happening. Either someone just doesnt like you, or you dont like them. Do they imply things that are connected to you being a minority? If you can single out these situations in writing, you might find out whats going on. Thats how it went for me.