I always thought of it like this: if a workplace makes you feel devalued or is toxic (gaslighting and ranting about you behind your back), you quietly find new pastures.
Now, however, I think this is the wrong approach: why do I have to accept they bully me? I should defend myself. And doesn’t the manager have to make sure a workplace ain’t toxic? Instead of quietly looking for a new job next time this happens, wouldn’t it be better to confront, document and escalate instead of letting it go? even if HR only exists to protect the company and not me.
If HR and manager do nothing to address the problem, wouldn’t it be a better strategy to start working the least possible and let the company fire me, while looking for another job?
To add to what scrubbles said, the looking for another job part of very important here. Blowing the whistle on your current colleagues may result in your boss not giving you as great of a reference as they otherwise may have. The best way to handle a hostile workplace is to leave the hostile workplace, unless there are blatantly outright illegal things being done to you. And sadly, depending on what those things are, even then…