What would they do to undermine you?
Examples
Not keep me in the loop.
Not share information about their systems and processes.
Ignore emails.
Break off chats on the internal IM system and change status to offline/in am meeting/do not disturb.
Be vague with answers.
Give incorrect information.
Not share historical context.
Not read / understand what I say (I am pretty precise in all communication), assume the worst (breh is a dummy) and proceed from that.
etc
A breh friend of mine was working in another country on the same project so I could find out some stuff from him. The project lead is in London and he can force them with regard to bigger items.
Examples.
In English (not their mother-tongue)
Example 1:
Me: QA are not as focused on this as they could be. I feel that more could be done about pushing this forward.
Them: All QA items are a priority (implication: YOU need to work on all open items).
Me: My point is that QA is not treating THIS as a priority.
Them: <log off>
Example 2:
Me: We have server X in domain A. I am looking for a corresponding server to server X, located in domain B.
Them: No server in domain A talks to domain B (implication: you don't understand the security driven division of domains). NB. They made this mistake because corresponding means "communicating" in their language and "to correspond" (same root) means to communicate in English sometimes too.
Me: "Corresponding to" in this context means the functional equivalent.
Them: <log off>
Example 3:
Me: What do you (in this financial software company) do to deal with floating point rounding errors.
Them: I don't know what you mean by FP rounding errors. I have never heard of them. (implication: what are you talking about dumb kneegrow)
Me: I sent you a link that explains it. In languages like c++ built in floating point numbers are imprecise due to the way they are stored. Email headed up "What EVERY computer scientist should know about floating point numbers" including links to the discussions explaining why and to boost high precision FP types.
Them: Thanks
Them: <silence>
etc.
When they start with that nonsense I just put them straight. I am polite but direct. That IMO is the best way to stop those sorts of attacks, especially ones in front of other people.