Actually I got to talk to the hiring manager of the new team and it’s nothing like it seemed. They seemed genuinely sorry and told me that since they had already external candidates who successfully completed the whole loop they had to present to an external panel. The whole team wanted me but the panel pushed for a diversity hire. So no bad words from my team towards the manager apparently. Tough luck.

Anyway I can kind of dictate the narrative in terms of communication by the recruiter and hiring manager towards my team. My company is super political, so any advice on how to proceed? I’m just planning to survive until I got an external offer but not relying on that.