My boss operates with complete egocentrism. He wants to have the world under his complete control, the rumors under his absolute control, and in fact, he's built his life around that. However, in his zeal, he manages to evade the very thing that could be used to stab him in the back. He tries to avoid anything that might cause him problems, because he knows he creates them, and all at the cost of his nerves, of course, if he intends to hold the world together. The man hasn't even shown up for a party, while his secretary has. It's clear he knows that everyone in the company wants him dead, wants him dead, because there was a tragedy and it was proven that all he knew was how to escape, how to avoid taking responsibility, how to be unprepared for emergencies. I haven't seen him in a while, and what I remember is that he tried to approach me several times to come work with him through friendly conversation, but I didn't let him. I'm no longer in that situation with him, and the time I did was only to get away from him. I didn't want him in my life; he almost put me in serious trouble. He's someone I'm not interested in, someone who only causes me problems with his sneaking around, his refusal to face the music, all because he clings to his cowardly principles.

He tried to get rid of me, making me try to stay with the others, but it backfired. The funny thing is, I ended up with the most hated person in the group. Of course, it was also an advantage for her, since she was a girl, because she just happened to be with the most introverted person, which is somewhat paradoxical given the group she's part of at the office. We're both introverts, we interact in our own way, and that's what really annoyed my boss. He thrived on having to conform to everyone's expectations, always on the edge, constantly avoiding everything. We, on the other hand, don't operate that way; we allow ourselves to be ourselves. He tried to separate us, and that's precisely when I managed to turn the tables. We didn't end up on each other; he was completely devastated. His days at the company aren't just numbered, they're practically nonexistent, because the bad rumors, fueled by a real complaint, are wreaking havoc on him.

It's a shame I had to pull such a trick on this person, but otherwise he'd never respect me, and he needs to learn to respect people, especially introverts. Whether he likes it or not, this is an honest way of life, unlike him, who's a dishonest extrovert. He clings to authority to do whatever he wants, and those kinds of people definitely shouldn't be in this world, especially not with the state of our country right now. Well, I had to get rid of that guy, especially since I'm the student admissions coordinator at a university, for God's sake. I have a lot of management knowledge, but I'm not going to give it to him. He thought for a long time that he had me wrapped around his little finger, but as time went on, things turned out the other way around: every attempt he made to get his hands on me was thwarted. He was someone who didn't know what to do because he felt limited by me, and he didn't like that, so he got rid of me. He does that to people he can't control when he gets the chance. I was going to do that with the girl, since she was in the same situation.

The man isn't the fierce warrior he claims to be when cornered, when he's alone, completely defenseless. He's not as clever as he pretends to be; in fact, I've seen how quickly he can be exposed. Of course, he doesn't care about his image because, as I've said, he always leaves things out of character and depends on the support of others. I'm not going to support this image because it won't do any good. Instead, I need people to see what we're dealing with so we can take precautions now. Being in a job isn't about having it for the sake of survival, but about fulfilling one's responsibilities. Supporting something like that is supporting an abuse of power, and one definitely shouldn't be part of a group like that. I'm glad the secretary distanced herself from him, as she'd been saying he was the one who brought her into the world with his true nature. In fact, he always made her do all the work, making her the one who did the running while she did the work—typical of patriarchal families. He always made her feel responsible for his stress. He was truly a wretch, and when I left him bankrupt, all she did was smile. Of course, those are the typical gestures of someone who manages to compensate for that wounded, oppressed part of themselves, which no one else supported in any way because it would involve a very, very delicate power struggle.

I would never have supported that woman in her situation, and besides, any complaint I made would have been used to contradict her.

The secretary's situation was one of being trapped. Who knows what kind of messes she got herself into with him? It's clear she's the kind of person who gets involved in social situations that inevitably backfire on her sooner or later, if she gets involved at all. She seems to live only to please others in order to keep the group together and get some affection at the same time. I once supported someone like that, and I'm certainly doing well now, but in this case, I'm afraid there was nothing I could do, because the thing was, she was in the same job, and I can't afford to make drastic changes that would affect me. In fact, when the thing with the girl happened, it affected her work life, and I had to find a way to get her out of that situation, no matter what. She reported something that shouldn't have been reported, and because of her reputation, people thought she was trying to make me look bad, when in reality she couldn't handle the situation, the conflict we had. She couldn't control it and sought support from others, but they didn't see it that way.

That girl, like the secretary, was also trying to gain influence over others, and in fact, they were constantly vying for power. Wow, so many things happened in the office that people didn't even notice. Of course, when that conflict arose, it's worth noting that people forgot they were in an office, and I used whatever it took to support her side. In this regard, my boss tried to do his own thing; he wanted to distance me from her, and frankly, I didn't want to. He wanted me to use some pseudo-bureaucratic excuse not to speak to her, knowing it would affect her, but I refused to use that excuse. I did too many things to make him turn his gaze toward me, to make him feel that I was somehow obsessed with the girl, and thus provoke a confrontation. He and his secretary wanted to stand up to him, but while the girl was doing her thing with them—because she was also in the fight—and I was doing my own thing with them, the group couldn't hold its ground. Thinking he had the upper hand with me, he lost it, and then he didn't know what to do. They never thought anyone would step down from their pedestal, least of all my boss, so he didn't know what to do. He didn't recognize me, just like his secretary. For them, it's not normal for someone to drag them into conflict; their life revolves around running away from them. The girl was on the same page as me with them; in fact, even after everything happened, she's still at it.

That someone wouldn't care about their peace is something they can't understand, something strange to them, because they assume everyone wants it, no matter what, since they see themselves as the primary providers. In fact, they considered themselves the lords and masters of the office, even though they weren't the authorities, something they couldn't do. Quite a recap of this story, it just so happens we're not on vacation and I haven't put all the pieces back in their place.

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