I’m the newest addition to a small, high functioning, competitive work group. I’m in a trial phase in which my contract is renewed yearly and there are no guarantees that I will be ultimately hired. At the same time, there is another recent graduate who I was in training with a couple years ago and I know on a casual basis. The interactions I had with him were not great and many accounts from others in the department endorse similar experiences. During meetings with my work group, there was talk of hiring him and I could tell from the discussion that he gave off a different, positive, impression to some of my colleagues. There were a few mixed reviews, so ultimately decided to speak up and share some of the experiences and problems he has created in the past. I think they appreciated the candor, but ultimately they hired him. Now we share an office (not at the same time) and I have worked on my thoughts around this whole thing to not have it control my own goals and progress. I find myself working fine with him and I’m partly regretting having shared with the group. I keep wondering if there is something proactive I can do to repair what seems to me like an awkward situation now at work. He doesn’t know that I shared some negative stories with group, but the rest of the group now thinks I don’t like him and perhaps even speak poorly of him because I want to be considered for the ultimate job hire over him (we are both in the same year to year contract situation without permanent jobs).