What would YOU do? A fellow at work has been bullying me and putting me down in front of the others... even when the boss is right there... for many months. He is a volunteer firefighter and EMT in our area. Just a few short months ago he said something that injured me internally after he found out I am against vaccines: If anything happens to you and I respond, I am just going to let you die. He made that statement right in the same room as the boss and another co-worker. Neither said a word, not wanting to get involved in it, and now pretend they dont remember him saying that... though they know full well that he did. Their attitude is... Just be a man and let it go. The problem is, I cant. Those words hurt me severely. Even after trying to forget, they keep coming back to haunt me, making me feel less than a human being deserving of life. As a matter of fact, being at work with him causes me to feel my life is at risk should anything ever happen to me where he responds. Things came to a head about three weeks ago, when he was putting me down in front of the other employee again. This time I got verbal with him in anger and told him I have had enough and that he best shut his mouth. At which time he stood up, doubled his fists and flinched at me. My reflexes caused me to do the same and came within inches of throwing a preemptive punch at the guy. Luckily for both of us, the other guy called us off of each other. Boss got informed but since he only has us two truck drivers, and with tons of red tape in hiring someine else, he thinks we can grow some thick skin and continue working together as though there is no problem. The guy continues to escalate things continually. He has gotten me fired from a lawn mowing customer I had who is his next door neighbor, threatens me at work every time he opens his mouth at work, and slanders me in our small community. I have an opportunity to escalate things myself by having a psychological counseling profile done for myself so the internal emotional injury is documented, then to use it for reporting the guy to the national EMT licensing board to get him reprimanded and possibly have his EMT license revoked since he appears to not have the public interest at heart. Further, he has used his status as a psychological weapon against me For all intents and purposes, he has in reality declared war on me for standing up to his bullying and hurtful words. People of YHWH arent to be aggressive immediately, nor are to seek vengeance of their own. So my question to my Torah Observant family is this... When is it time to retaliate back at one such as this? Should I just lay down and take it like a man while being emotionally raped day in and day out? Or should I engage this enemy after having been a soft-answering voice for many months now? Shall I pull out and use this nuke option unilaterally to get this egomaniac off the streets in his medical first-responder capacity after making the death threat to me? Or should I just simply play it off as he might just be joking. I am doing my due diligence in asking for the publics input rather than acting rashly... though my finger is on the button ready so strike. So... What say you? Shall I push the button even though it could cause even more problems with the guy and at the job? Or should I just sit here letting myself be pummeled and injured like a lamb to the slaughter? When is the right time to rise up in defense? Should a person even bother defending himself at all? Should a person simply allow this to continue just for the sake of keeping the job while jobs are hard to find? Allowing it to get to the point of suicide via not caring to live anymore and just giving up on caring for oneself? What say you, family?
Posted on: Mon, 18 Aug 2014 03:16:00 +0000