I've always been a pretty smart and driven guy but the last few years have been a big departure from that. I dropped out of school to start my own business and made a pretty decent living for a year before my founder and I had a fairly respectful split and decided to pursue different things.

From then on I went into different sales jobs (call center, door to door, etc) trying to build those skills but ultimately was hella depressed about it. I started working at a company a couple years ago and while I was good, I felt stuck and my demeanor kind of demonstrated that. I took on the reputation as the talented yet unmotivated guy. I got along with all of my superiors (personally speaking) and got a lot of "why are you here?" type looks when explaining my background. After a year I got a burst of motivation and within a month I got a promotion making more than double what I was making and more than my superiors.

I know it sounds self serving but I really did work hard and interview well. Had to mute my ego for a good amount of time to learn a new role that's really complex and requires a lot of accountability.

You'd think that'd be a good thing but I didn't do a great job of keeping in touch with folks. I assumed they'd understand that I was busy with the new gig and just life in general but the few times I've seen or reached out to them, it's fairly awkward. I understand the women who had crushes/flirted heavily would be a little hurt that I didn't keep in touch with them. What weirds me out is the guys that I thought I was cool with being bitches about it.

The company got acquired like 6 months after my promotion and I got laid off. At the time, I was ready to move on to a better role so I wasn't really tripping and already had a connection within the company who wanted to take me on. When my old colleagues got wind of it, they were almost giddy with the anticipation of having me "under" them again. I tried not to trip over it but it was so obvious. I reached out to my old boss three separate times to talk about whether I should continue with the company or go somewhere else and he blew me off each time (still had enough time to watch all of my instagram stories tho). I guess he thought I was going to ask for my old job back, which, why the fuck would I willingly take a pay cut but whatever.

Cut to now, I'm still with the same company in a new role making even more than I was after my promotion. Come to find out, my old boss got laid off too. I reached out to him to offer my condolences (something he didn't bother to do with me) and offered to do a happy hour but I don't know if I should even bother anymore. I never thought it would get like this but it really seems like some of those folks are genuinely salty about how quickly I moved up (some of them have been with the company for 10+ years). I asked some other high-up colleagues who know these people about the situation and, across the board, they were all taken aback by the behavior. I try to think positive about people because thinking negatively gets me in a bad space emotionally but this seems so clear.

First off, am I tripping? Should I assume that other people are just doing their own thing and nothing has to do with me? Or should I trust my gut? If the latter, should I even bother trying to save these relationships? The phone works both ways right?