Hey guys,
So I’ve been working at the same place for over two years at this point and for the most part I enjoy what I do and the company I work for is decent for the most part. I pretty much try to keep to myself but there is one other guy in the office who I’ve made the mistake of opening up discourse with for about 8 months now. He seemed fairly normal at the start but after having a couple of heated discussions with him about politics over the last couple of weeks (big mistake I know) he’s let his true colours rise to the surface and I’ve come to the conclusion that he is not all there in the head (an understatement to say the least). He seems to think that the entire world is dominated by the Anglo Patriarchy, Stalin/Mao/Pol Pot never had anyone killed, etc.
Call me crazy but I really think he could have it in for me and may try to have me fired because he sees me as being privileged (despite the 7 years of toil and sacrifice I endured just to get to this level in my career). What’s worse is the fact that I’m an ethnic minority (I’m white) at the office and while I try to judge people on their character, experience has shown that people tend to side with their own. Without getting into too much detail about what he does, it seems like he’s trying to paint me as some sort of ogre. An example would be if we both try to enter a room at the same time, he lowers his head and says “sorry boss” (I have no position of authority at this place) and lets me pass. Even yesterday when I told him I wasn’t feeling very well he jokingly asked “oh are you going to kill people?” (makes no sense why he would even say that) which I don’t find funny at all and I don’t think would be considered a joke no matter what culture you come from.
Believe me, I feel very uncomfortable posting some thing this personal on a public forum but it’s 4am where I am right now and all day I’ve just been dealing with this crazy amount of anxiety trying to think about what to do with this situation. If I got fired right now I would be F~~~ED! I haven’t been able to save up a whole lot of money, jobs in my field are extremely rare and I have no support from my parents. I need to do one more year at this place before I can look for better opportunities in my field and as stated previously, jobs in this field are very hard to come by (even more so with the economy being in the way it is) so quitting is out.
I’ve never asked for advice on a forum before but I’ve also never had to really deal with something like this before. Until recently, for my whole work life I’ve managed to slip through the cracks and avoid conflict so I’m quite ill prepared for this type of scenario. Not to mention the fact that years of solitude have made it hard for me to really understand people. It just goes to show that trying to make friends with people at work boarders on self sabotage. If I manage to survive this, I’ll be the most bland, faceless, impersonal corporate drone at the work place to ever exist.
If anyone could give me advice on how to put a quick end to this scenario before it manifests into something worse it would be greatly appreciated. But I’d like to request useful advice, saying I should tell him to “f~~~ off” will only make things worse and telling me what I should have done instead will not help. Should I get the higher ups involved? Or should I try to deal with him face to face and record the whole encounter?
Thanks
Hitman 4 years, 7 months ago.
