Whether and how to confront an underminer

[Anonymous]

A relatively new employee at work has been given a lot of responsibility and is developing a reputation for creating a toxic dynamic. Recently this person had a conversation with me that they did not agree with how I was handling a situation with a client, which I discussed with my boss prior. I suggested maybe we should go to my boss and get her take. Instead they went to someone high up n the company, discussed the situation, and my this person called a private meeting with me about it and didn't include my boss, which is generally frowned upon as it left me without a defender in the room. It infuriated me and my boss wasn't too happy about it either. I got told I had to handle ti difficult. Is it best to confront someone like this or just steer clear of them? How do you confront them in a way that doesn't seem, well, confrontational and paranoid?

[Anonymous]

sounds like my old coworker. You can try to have a conversation (one on one) but toxic people don't change. If your convo doesn't work, steer clear!

[Anonymous]

OP you submitted to the new employee when you passive-aggressively suggested going to your boss to get their opinion, rather than simply asserting yourself. Don't be infuriated, you gave away your power it wasn't taken from you

[Anonymous]

Does the new employee report to your manager? If yes, I would let your manager handle the situation.

If no, you and your manager need to come up with a strategy to manage this other person -- this isn't impacting just you, it's also impacting your manager.

[Anonymous]

As infuriating as this situation may be, once someone very high up takes action, you don't really have any choice but to move forward. You can't buck the system now.