My theory is: either my co-workers, manager, human resources or all of them were concerned about my facial expressions and personality being always neutral, doing just what I was supposed to do in the office: work. My co-workers did not have anything special to say about me, nothing bad nor good, I talked with them just enough to do my job, almost never said anything about my life, family or the things I did during the weekend. Many people draw mental images of you using the information you give them about what you do in your life outside of work, so I assume they unconsciously translated the lack of personal details as “this person is not good for me” and somehow this ended up in the performance review that almost fired me.
Years later, here I am, still playing the psychological game at work. It is tiring but it works.