Competitive Coworkers

At every job, I encounter competitive coworkers. They give bad feedback to managers and tarnish my reputation right from the start.

How can you coexist with these people? Do you have to make it clear that you're not a threat in ANY way from the start. I also noticed that coworkers target me if I fail to join in with gossip.

I am in my 20s and have blonde hair, so I'm used to people being condescending and failing to take me seriously. However, if I try to combat this by working extra hard & putting in excess effort.....I experience extreme backlash from coworkers. So I feel like I'm in a lose-lose situation.

I had a manager praise me in front of this jealous coworker. I saw this coworker go in my manager's office at the end of the day. The next morning, my manager was extremely cold and rude towards me.

This coworker had been talking down to me, she is condescending at every opportunity, and refused to train me on important tasks. She would say she was "busy" or ignore me each time I asked for help. I am a new employee, and she is in her 40s and has been working at the office for years.

She spends so much time gossiping about me. She asked me so many personal questions when I first started, and somehow the entire office now knows some distorted version of my life story. And her 'friends' at work are always extremely hostile towards me.