graystreet, I don't know much about this apart from the fact that I worked in a different industry with quite a few *****es (male and female) and drama queens.

It's nothing about you. There are some people who conduct their lives this way: it's their system for getting what they want in the world and there isn't a lot you can do to change that.

However, what enabled me to survive in my situation was making allies and setting limits. I deliberately built up alliances with people my own age - not close friendships, but people who I had coffee with and walked to the bus stop that kind of thing. I made friends with anyone who seemed stable and half-way rational. The second part was stepping back from the situation enough to decide when things had gone too far: there was one situation where a crowd ganged up on someone for a couple of days and I reported them to management. I didn't get beaten up afterwards, although I expected that might happen.

In that instance it was clearly not my personal problem, it was a person's behaviour that spread around the group and affected all of our working. There was a clause in our contract that specified reporting unacceptable behaviour.

It's not easy! I suffered in another situation and my boss told me to ride it out because dynamics change. In the end we were all made redundant, so that forecast proved to be true! In that situation I deliberately went to work donning an imaginary protective raincoat.

At your senior level I don't think this should be happening and I would encourage you to find out whether there are any mentoring or reporting mechanisms that you can use. You clearly have a lot to offer your workplace!

Please start by knowing that the world works this way sometimes, it is not your craziness making it so!