So this week at work, I had another trigger experience. It was really all so silly, but here goes:
I had parked my car in the front of the building and when it came time to leave, I had forgotten and started walking towards the breakroom to that parking lot. The VP of Operations was walking with me, as we were chatting about some work stuff, and then he said "didn't you park up front?" I stopped dead in my tracks and said something along the lines of "oh crap, you're right, I forgot". You'd think this was no big deal, right? Let me describe to you the VP's reaction:
He starts jumping around, like a 6 year old (or perhaps a leprechaun, movements were very
similar to the one in the scary movies about the evil leprechaun), yelling "El Stupido, El
Stupido! You're so stupid! You forgot where you parked your car!" and was making the
burn gesture with his hands (you know the one - licking his finger then motioning and making
the hissing burn sound).
He continues this behavior, following me back to the front where I am parked. Now, I don't mind a good ribbing when I do something silly like forget where I parked my car, but calling me stupid went a bit too far in my opinion, especially by someone in his position. After I laughed with him for a minute, I told him he needed to be quiet before he got punched in the face. Of course I was trying to be nice, as he is the VP (and the son of the president and can therefore do no wrong), but he continued. Then I told him he was bordering on harassment and that got a slight reaction out of him, his response being that he couldn't believe I was calling this behavior harassment. When we got to the front and he was STILL continuing the berating behavior, I hollered out towards his father's office "Mr. X, your LITTLE BOY is bothering me! Please make him leave me alone!!!!!" That stopped the VP dead in his tracks. It actually shocked him that I did that.
I was able to leave in peace, but of course the harassment started up again the next day. Snide little comments, trying to be funny, and when he saw I was no longer laughing about it, he quit. (and yes, I did tell his father about his behavior the next day, and he just thought the whole thing was funny, then proceeded to tell me that his son has always been mischievous) He even tried picking on me in front of his father, and I pointed out that yes, I'm human, I make mistakes, and he is not without mistakes of his own, and if he wanted, I could point some of those out. Perhaps he is done picking on me, if not, I think I will remind him of a list of the mistakes I know that he has made that are all work related and that I have had to be the one to follow up on and fix.
Why is this a trigger for me you ask? Because in general I take great offense at being called stupid. My ex-husband used to call me stupid, a "college educated idiot", and any number of intelligence defiling names. He used to berate the kids, too, about their apparent lack of intelligence. The mama bear in me comes out when someone calls my son stupid, and it led to many fights with the ex.
And yes, I know, people pick on others about things that they themselves are insecure about or know that they lack, or that they are jealous of. The ex sure was insecure and jealous of many different things.
No comments:
Post a Comment