iRegret.net

There’s this guy at work whose face I want to smash. He thinks intelligence is about being critical of just about everything and everyone; he thinks it’s all about asserting ego, having edge, being in the know, cool, with an arsenal of opinions (often not his own) at the ready. He’s hyper-competitive so when you go to him about a work matter, go without an agenda, he reads one into it. Everything is about the self (he MUST have his own blog). He can’t imagine, given the limits of his world view, that you’re just doing your job, have an innocuous request, or maybe sometimes are just trying to chat, be kind, open, find something redeeming despite the odds. But I didn’t come here to vent, though that’s helpful, but to say how much I regret the effect this guy has on me. He often brings me down to his level — he carps or accuses and I get defensive and do the same, get into this whole one-upmanship. I get so discouraged about my own capacity to rise above. I want to simply shake him off, walk away, let it go (there’s no teaching or communicating when he knows it all, is in charge of attacks and quips), but I feel it rising — I want to smash his face.

Submitted by: Cat