When I took on my first job, I met a difficult colleague. She talks over me, never acknowledge my name, was mean to me when she gets a chance.
I was new to the job so when I had questions she would call me stupid and be mean and not tell me the answer.
I stayed for another 2 years before leaving because as much as I try to ignore her attitude towards me and try to improve, I find as long as she’s around she will not stop treating me like a stupid newbie.
She was seniority conscious and I was the last staff the company hired even after 2 years so she kept treating me like a noob. As more staff left, she was throwing more work at me even though we hold the same position. I couldn’t take it and left too.
Fast forward 8 years later. I went to a new company and did fairly well. We survived covid and I also survived retrenchment and got promoted after (even though the pay increase wasn’t much, I am happy where I am)
We had a recruitment exercise recently with me being part of the team in charge and guess who came to interview? She looked shocked the moment she entered the interview room and saw me sitting in the center out of 3 interviewers.
She greeted me by my name and called me Miss. Wow. To think last time she called me ‘oei’ for 2 years even though I had been wearing a name tag.
I didn’t show any sign of recognizing her and started the interview. She did her best to try to impress us. When it was over I guess she knew she’s not going to get the job. She messaged me after and tried to be friends and talked as though we have catching up to do. I just said it was nice to see her and left the rest unanswered.
She wasn’t a good fit for the job and we didn’t call her back for another round of interview. I wonder if she had any regret of being mean to me in the past.
Karma vibes is strong here. One thing I learnt from her: Don’t be mean to anyone. You never know if you need this person’s kindness and grace in the future. I don’t care if she changed or not and I’m not interested to find out.