Hostile work environment?

Wow, well I have been through this on both sides of the coin (both in your position and as the manager in a different job). The short answer is that there is no easy way to deal with this. I too am really good at my job, but have also been deemed "unapproachable" and what have you, by various people. And yes, of course, it is ALWAYS those same people who are nice to your face and talk to you at other times and even come to you whenever they want help with stuff. (Sigh.)

I have also been through this where I have been the manager having to navigate this situation. Most managers will not ever reveal who made the complaints (because people have rights to avoid retaliation), but then again, sometimes in especially small offices it's impossible to not know who it was who had the problem with you. Unfortunately, in those cases you have 3 factors to contend with---your personality, your manager's personality and the personality of your coworker(s) in question, not to mention the added headache of poor management styles.

If a complaint (or more than one) is received, it should be treated as a warning and a legitimate disciplinary review. Chances are there are more than one complaint you could have registered about the same people, but haven't, so it's always as though they appear to be model employees while you are obviously the problem child (even though it is not usually as simplistic as that). If this was meant to be a coaching or mentoring exercise, then blame, complaints and hints of complaints should not have entered into this at any point. The purpose of mentoring is to make you better, not cut you down to size. So again I say it sounds like this wasn't handled correctly and there is no easy way to deal with it.

How I WOULD suggest that you handle it is twofold: 1) Cut through all the horrible crap in this and use the constructive advice (or the fact that this was brought to your attention) concerning your sarcasm to consider how you do come across to people. This is something you can work on, on your own. And I would suggest that you do. Think about what it is that makes you sarcastic and look up resources online or in a book store to find out how to improve your communications in business. You don't want to be held back in life or work by bad habits. 2) Spend some time thinking about whether this is a place you want to continue to work. Assuming this event did not happen, would you still really want to work there, or work there for the long haul? If the answer is yes, then forgive and forget and revert to item #1. If the answer is no, then do start thinking about what kind of job and work environment you'd want and begin searching for that. If you need to better your skills or increase your knowledge, begin doing that in preparation for the transition you know you want to make. Knowing that you won't be there forever and that there is a light at the end of that tunnel will give you perspective and make your remaining days there much easier.

If you need any further information, feel free to ask!