Counting down the days
Nope, not until Christmas. I am counting down the days until the horrible deal I’m on closes. Each and every day I awaken at 5 am to see the red light of my Blackberry flashing. I dread picking it up and typing in my password because I know what will greet me. Hate mail from the loser associate on the east coast. He’s an actual bully. He’s made one of my junior associates so stressed that she broke down in tears in her office and now refuses to work with him directly (awesome – more contact for me). The other junior associate is so scared of him she plays dumb so I won’t make her do any substantive work with him.
I’ve tried all of my usual approaches to befriending opposing counsel and nothing works. It’s a bit surprising since I’m the one everyone refers to as “Switzerland;” I can work with anyone. Anyone but him it seems. It’s so bad that I can feel my blood pressure rising when I read his messages. I’ve had to stop reading them when Oscar is in the room because I don’t want him to feel my anger. This is just no way to live. Anyone have an effective means of putting a person in his place in a manner that isn’t going to reflect badly on you?
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Etta’s Hats
Where I’ve Been
Sometimes there is nothing you can do about those people. I think some bullies are just trying to build themselves up by tearing others down. You can appeal to his vanity or you can prove that you are his equal or better than him. I work with a physician that likes to brag about going to “Hah-vard”. Yeah, that’s the way he says it even though he is from the midwest. I happened to drop a comment about starting college when I was 16 and also mentioned that I began traveling/living abroad by myself when I was 14. He may have graduated from Hah-vard, but I have some real life experiences that a Harvard degree doesn’t teach. Now he seems to reserve his crap for someone else.