this feels too real (from what I heard from scientific presentations, which isn't a lot, so take my info with grain of salts).
People don't look at achievements, they look at how to denigrate you which makes your words dismissable.
People hate people for stupid reason (mostly jealousy), if they can bring them down to their level, they will do it.
Better than see more funds being allocated to them while, like mostly everyone on the scientific field, they're just trying to get by, day by day.