How to respond when a colleague makes a backhanded compliment about your clothes, salary or promotion

“Congratulations on your promotion! Though, honestly, I thought you’d have to work here a few more years to get it.” The colleague smiles, takes a sip of coffee and walks away. You are left holding your promotion letter, wondering how a congratulation managed to feel like an insult.Or consider this: you walk into the office wearing a new outfit, and a colleague says, “That looks so expensive! Someone must be paying you really well.” When you mention your salary hike, the same person remarks, “Wow, you must be the boss’s favourite.”None of these comments is openly hostile. There is no obvious insult to challenge, no raised voice and no argument to point to. Yet each remark leaves a little sting, making you wonder whether you are being celebrated, mocked or quietly put in your place.