Tusconmom’s Option #2 is what I had to use one time at work in my younger days when an older woman with an attitude in my division was always trying to boss me around and she was in no way my supervisor. Like I said, I’m sort of shy and non-confrontational (but losing a lot of that as I get older, lol). So I had to rehearse in my head what I was going to say the next time she started ordering me around, and when that moment came, I looked her in the eye and told her “You know, you are not my supervisor, and you are not my mother, so I’d like to know why you think you can tell me what to do!” She looked at me in shock, and I actually rendered her speechless, lol. She backed off after I made the point that she was out of bounds and I didn’t have as many problems with her after that.
I thought about advising you to respond to them with an “in your face” attitude also in my earlier post, but I do think it’s best trying the diplomatic approach or the stealthy Option #1 for starters. If that doesn’t work, then I agree, sometimes you just have call people on their bad behavior in a blunt and direct way.
I’m keeping my fingers crossed for you! I hope things get better soon.