One of the plans of reform I am personally working on is to bring to
my current workplace, a new model of union employee—I am a union
steward at a small, private institution in the Twin Cities.
As technology rapidly advances, upgrades and changes, the building
engineer gig is transforming, the job description is evolving. My
descriptive phrase for it is we are becoming intellectual,
blue-collar workers. By this I mean we do the repairs and
replacements of equipment and mechanical systems, but we are also
assessing damage, planning and scheduling repairs, are ordering our
own parts, using p-cards to order parts and then electronically
submitting receipts to billing. We plan projects, get the parts, do
the work and then close out work orders on our smart phones. Our
building automation system is quite sophisticated. My premise is a
new generation of technical workers requires their being highly
skilled, versatile thinkers and constantly retraining, employees who
are also individuating supercitizens apiece: this is the best way to
grow these needed smart workers for tomorrow’s marketplace.
I like working in a union shop and being a union activist for I
regard this as a test lab or my introduction into the work place of
the intellectual blue-collar worker who is really a developing
anarchist individuating supercitizen. There is no better way to
democratize the work place. There is no better way to develop skilled
workers. Resulting too would be a huge upswing in increased
compensation, employee morale and motivation to work hard and well.
I have communicated some of this to my Employer and they are not
having it at all. They are quite backwards in their Management style.
They have tried to fire me many times, but no luck so far. I have
been too nimble and too good a counter-puncher for them to prevail up
to this time. Now I may have met my match. They just hired a seasoned
gaslighter to take me out, and he is a resolved, formidable
adversary.
The supervisor hates me and wants to be rid of me, so he just hired a
big, extroverted, very group-oriented, bullying narcissist to work
next to me, to boss me and ride me, to spy on me, to cut me down
constantly and to harass me continually.
I have grayrocked this bully and backed him off, and the other
members of my night crew are more friendly and
more-live-and-let-live.
This narcissist was brought in to take me out, and I speculate he is
so suited for this role because this is not his first rodeo as a
Management thug. He has done this at other work places, been a snitch
and management enforcer for which he has been rewarded, promoted for
his loyalty to Management. Each shift is painful to work with him,
but I am getting by. I work alone as much as I can, and I take breaks
by myself and minimize contact with him and set boundaries. I do not
fight with or argue with him for engaging with a narcissist is to
validate his love of fighting, and to set me up for discipline
trouble for fighting, which I am avoiding.
I think this man is vicious and hates me with a passion, though he is
a recent hire and I have done nothing to him. I do not bully or boss
him or haze him as a newbie, but, for a guy on probation, he does not
fear saying controversial, oppositional things. He wants to argue,
fight, get into my affairs and straighten me out, eager for the
chance even. He had to have been sent by the supervisor and HR to
take me out. He has been this toxic and hostile right from the first
hour of working there.
By the way, the group of engineers against me on my shift are three
black immigrants and an American black supervisor, so I assume
reverse racism against a white male is at work here. There are other
reasons they despise me and want me gone. I do not suck up to the
supervisor. I am a strong trade union activist, building up Local 70,
a real thorn in Management’s side, and these fellow engineers curry
favor with Management if and as they work against me. I am also 71
and ½ years old and there is likely some age discrimination
occurring. Mostly, as a practicing individuator and supercitizen, I
am antithetical to these conformist, nonindividuators who conform to
whatever Management wants, so they want me out for that reason too.
Then I am a political and cultural conservative, and all of these
black engineers are liberals or leftists, so that is a source of
tension too.
Now, when I take a break with the other engineers, our conversation
is friendly and casual, and goes along normal lines. He, the
gaslighter, is in the room, and is dead silent when I am there,
looking at his smart phone for a 30 minute break.
When he is alone with the other engineers he is chatting and laughing
nonstop. He wants to do the same with me, not out of friendliness and
extroverted bonhomie, but aggressive to gain control over me, to get
under my gray rocking defense barrier so that he can start
gaslighting, bossing, kibitzing and nitpicking non-steop.
When I have a neutral, mutual conversation, casual and without
consequence or without guards up—no need to—he will not
participate. He will only talk if I let my guard down and allow him
to argue with me about everything, intrude in my work space,
assignments, and home life.
What this has revealed to me is that a workplace bully and management
enforcer is a groupist, a pure groupist, a narcissist who seeks the
power of powerlessness over others. I am the most independent and
individualistic, so the supervisor, HR and he desperately desire to
isolate, hassle, drive out or expel me by any means possible.
The other engineers, likely more on his side than mine, after three
years, know they cannot evict me so either they are friendly or just
pretend to be friendly—a bit of both—so we can let our guards
down a bit and talk normally, enjoy each other’s company, get the
work done, get through the shift, get our money and go home—no more
or less than that.
This bully, thug and gaslighter, will have the casual, friendly
conversation with them, because HR and the supervisor have ordered
him to leave them alone for now—at least until I am removed--so he
does. He has been coached and ordered to make it unpleasant for me
and to get me out of there, and he really is eager to do so,
indicating he is a real demon doing it because he enjoys destroying
an individualist in the workplace for his own dark reasons as well as
for promised rewards from management for doing their dirty work for
them.
Now I classify the conversational pattern between the other second
shift engineers and me, the healthy, causal, inconsequential, open,
relaxed conversations as having some distinct if implicit linguistic
and communicative premises or rules at work. First, operating here is
the power model, the power of powerfulness, where people do not use
conversation and communication to set up group pecking order games,
ranking establishment, sadomasochistic power rankings and repression
of the individuality of all individuals working there. People are
roughly workplace and social equals and it is cooperative and live
and let live. The communication interchange is peaceful and to keep
the peace.
The narcissist bullying gas lighter is radically refusing to use this
style of language use and communicative interaction conversationally
when I am present in the group. It indicates that he refuses to
communicate in a way that is friendly, individualistic, without power
struggles and games, and he seeks to eliminate the positive power of
powerfulness, the wonderful way of communicating that super citizens
like me use in institutional roles.
He will only talk to me with linguistic and conversational patterns
where conflict, fighting, gaslighting and bullying are primary foci.
He seeks to invade my space, to belittle all that I am and do to be
up along side me all the time like a drill sergeant to get me working
harder running and pushed out or fired via corrective discipline.
He is signaling that he will not leave off resorting to the sick
groupist power of powerlessness, the collectivist-altruist, groupist
pattern of communicating. That power patter is the one power and
linguistic model of communication favored by people in institutions
which are tyrannies where belongers are exploited, abused, oppressed
with their rights violated: therein, bosses are abusive dictators,
rewarding ins and disfavoring outs, which a rigid pecking order set
up and reinforced. All suffer and none flourish as they could if
well-treated and encouraged.
The gaslighter is signaling that eventually he will wear me down get
inside my grayrocking defenses; then he will attack me in earnest,
then start tearing me down to my face and in front of others grabbing
my thoughts, my say, the good name of my work and my very presence in
the job sight. He is a hater and an emotional parasite and cannibal.
The only conservation he will have is the sick, divisive one, no
mutually respect and keeping the peace and upgrading all. I don't
know how long I will last there but I have built up this union and
have a chance so I will seek to last and not be run out thought this
corrupt, narcissist bully gas lighter, my hardcore enemy, a deeply
cruel person. I may end up quitting or moving to another shift, but I
will stand it as long as I can.
Again, he instinctively participates in a conversation that is
friendly and safe with a great soul on his shift (me) only if I allow
him to invade my privacy, my work space, to supervise and boss me
while I do my work orders. He will not be just one of the boys among
equals. He is real power hungry and very intrusive disallowing worker
individual independence, privacy, alone time and space.
He wants to be with me all the time, not out of friendliness, but to
gain control of me—his extroversion is aggressive and hostile, not
friendly. He is very groupist, very conformist, and he is so eager to
enforce the Management perspective for personal gain and to have a
chance to unload his sadistic anger and resentment about being born
upon an individualist, a natural outsider and scapegoat who he needs
to target to assuage his self-loathing, quite a nasty, sick,
dangerous peer.
The gaslighter instinctively, slyly has figured out to refuse to use
that positive language and power model which detracts from his
mission: to grow his institutional power and gain reward with
Management by undercutting me, a dissident.
By contrast, healthy coworkers individualists will dare to be open
and express their opinions and individuality, casually expressing
their opinions, without anyone out to dominate, snitch, retaliate or
suppress so where benevolent language and worker power changes are
beneficial to al, that state of existence will be corresponded to
with language and conversation of the positive kind.
On the other hand, the narcissist scapegoater abuses himself and
others by kissing ass above and kicking ass below as all joiner
victims are in turn victimizers, as all live in pain and low
self-esteem their hatred cementing their tight-knit, pack pecking
order. This pecking order functions within the work hierarchy. No
individualism is allowed: all conform, groupthink, group-speak and
all spy on all all the time.
That such work place suffering and unhappiness is the workday story
is matched by the prevalence, the presence of the corresponding power
of powerlessness model of power-sharing, with its accompanying,
dysfunctional language and communication interactions.
None of this meshes with the supercitizen, individualistic worker way
of communicating—the power of powerfulness--which I am promoting.
The gaslighter likely would not admit to any of this if I confronted
him with it but he is living it and expressing it every day, these
conversational patterns of the group vs the individual are very
ancient, archetypal subconscious and powerful, repeating universal
patterns of power sharing and power quarreling.