My Workplace Bully

My Workplace Bully
Photo by Matthew Henry / Unsplash

Image Description

Picture of a pug under a beige blanket looking sad into the distance. The bug is on a bed that is out of focus in the image

CW// Workplace Harassment, Bullying, Transphobia and Racism


My workplace bully means to kill me.

He tells me the work I do is never enough.

Chastises me for being different.

“Not aggressive enough”

“Sure you do the work but…you’re not going above and beyond” 

“What made you feel confident to present this work”

Never enough for this white world 

Never enough for this thin world 

Never enough for this cis-hetero patriarchal world

Never enough for this ableist world 

In his eyes, he looks at me and sees everything the world tells him you’re not supposed to be.

Under the surface his animosity for me grows.

“Why the fuck does he think he doesn’t have to follow the rules like I do?”

“Why the hell won’t he work hard like ME”

You see, my bully is one of the few people at work who sees my defiance for this world.

It fascinates him.
It terrifies him. 
And as we know with white men…what they do not understand…they must destroy.

Before our meetings, my bully coordinates his efforts to see how best to break this spirit of mine.

He recites a quote from his favourite Winston Churchill book.

Reads over the notes from the podcast he listened to earlier in the morning about “becoming the leader you were meant to be”

He closes his eyes.
Sits in his sea of rage. 
Remembers the ways I’ve shown disdain for this world. 
A world he sees as perfect. 
A world he cherishes.
A world with order.
His world, that I’ve besmirched.
His world, that I’ve dared to defile.
His world, I’ve thrown into chaos.
Chaos, that he will soon bring back into alignment.

Uniformity is the company and he is it’s sword.


More on institutions, exclusion and discrimination:

Land of Milk and Honey
A banter-full budget released, with minimal investment in infrastructure and transit, talk less of housing. A capital city as walkable and pedestrian friendly as a round of Total Wipeout. Just about 5 million of yous here, so where exactly is all that money going.
Its important to be excluded from white institutions
Image Description A “do not enter” road sign with a gremlin character in the middle of the sign. Its important to be excluded Its important to be denied Its important to be shooed away Its important to be restricted Its important to be left out From hierarchical institutions From perverse
Beauty according to who?
Beautiful power, beautiful violence and beautiful domination Beauty is cruel And sinister Self loathing Insecure And dehumanizing A complex and tortuous hierarchy
Consequences
...Meaning that those studying Western education - the sciences, history, art etc in particular - are, to and of varying degrees - inadequate and more importantly, illegitimate.
Addiction to white thoughts
We wait for them to save us To betray us Despite the way they have mentally drained us
What is sanity?
Sanity and that sane culture. Is shackles, restrictions and cruelty to me. Sanity as we know it. Has strangled what it means to be free.
Thoughts on art residences
An opinion piece by Love, Builder of Worlds on the discriminatory nature of art residences.
797 to Hatfield - poem by Love, Builder of Worlds
A poem about respectability and class. It’s about feeling coerced into an academic institution by immigrant parents and capitalism.
Cool Kids - Poem by Love, Builder of Worlds
Refuse the buffet. Of group chat, group drinks, group think. Develop my own vertebrae. That will be with the first stone. To paving my own way.