Channeling your Inner Samurai At the Office.

Ever feel like decapitating your coworkers? Probably nothing that extreme, but we all have our days when we’d love to tell our fellow office inhabitants to go stick it where the sun don’t shine.

Well recently one Japanese school girl did take it to the extreme by decapitating one of her schoolmates. No one at the school thus far can come up with any reasoning for the young girl’s actions, but police are still investigating. The most surprising piece of this entire crime is that the attacker came right out and admitted she did it! Talk about cut-throat.

While the young girl’s actions are nothing any of us sane business people would ever consider, I’m sure we all have a story or two we could tell about inter-office rivalries.

At the place I worked prior to this year, there was a woman who had a split personality. Every day was different; one day she would be the most pleasant, chatty, likeable person in the office, and the next she’d have some criticism for anything anyone did. We called her second, less likeable personality, Marge. Did I mention on top of her constant criticisms she was very bossy; despite the fact that she was very far from holding a managerial position! “Marge in charge” quickly became her alternate personality’s label.

Most of the other girls in the office were pretty intimidated by her. They never stood up to her attitude; which of course just fed right into her power trip. I however don’t have that sort of will power to be able to bite my tongue. There is one instance in particular I can remember her being her bossy, negative, critical self, and I could feel my blood beginning to boil. After a few minutes of her going on and on, I couldn’t take it any longer and snapped right back at her tenfold. I drew my sword, raised it above my head in full warrior’s stance, and did what warriors do; figuratively speaking of course.

My actions towards her aren’t something I’m completely proud of. After all, an office can barely handle one bully, let alone two bullies battling it out to the bitter end. However I think every now and then you have to take a stand and let people know you’re not there to be batted around like their play-toys. You’re there to do your job, and make some money, and maybe if you’re lucky have a little fun along the way.

So while I do not advocate inter-office violence of any sort (especially the kind involving decapitation) I do think it’s necessary to stand up for yourself. If you’re having problems with a coworker, your boss isn’t going to want to hear about it. They’re basically going to tell you “tough shit” and to figure it out on your own. So in my opinion its better not to involve your boss until you have no cards left in your hand. Do everything you can to take care of the bullying problem yourself first. But don’t think of it as a battle to be won, think of it as a problem solving exercise. Your boss will take note of your efforts, and with that approach there is less likely to be negative consequences for everyone.

sources:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB124252456960327328
http://www.cnn.com/2014/07/28/world/asia/japan-schoolgirl-murder/index.html
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mbvd/japanese-girl-allegedly-decapitated-15-year-old-classmate

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