In my career, I have worked with some really, really bad people who have made it their job to makes other people miserable. The buzz word for those types these days is "Toxic."
Chickpea, a boss who picked his nose, passed gas, burped in management meetings, told his staff to shut-up, snapped his fingers at them to get their attention and threatened to fire someone at the drop of the hat, is a toxic person. He's got waste coming out his eyeballs.
Then there was the woman I called "Bats-in-the-belfry Bitch." TOXIC. She turned every one-on-one meeting into a brag-fest, whether it was about how much money she had, how all the clients loved, loved, loved her or how many (imaginary) friends she had.
I've written recently about the snitty slacker and Big Bones Bore, so no need to rehash them.
Lately, a different breed of person has been annoying me. Stupid people with large egos. Just because they are stupid doesn't make them bad. The large ego does, however, throw them in the same category as the people above.
I remember once when a stupid person I worked with confided in me that her boss, Bats-in-the-Belfry Bitch (BBB) was too much to handle. I sympathized with her, because no one hated the triple B more than I did. Anyway, BBB and I worked together on a few projects, and that day when work finished, I saw her in the parking lot and went up to her to ask her something about a project. The stupid chick confronted me the next day, assuming I must have been telling BBB what she had said. I had forgotten about what she had said. It wasn't that important or interesting or nothing new.
I've noticed that since then, many dumb people I encounter actually have large egos, which puts them in the same category as really smart people with large egos - people behaving badly. Usually, you associate a highly successful person with having a Rumsfeld-sized ego. Not that being smart and successful always go hand-in-hand. So at middle-age, I have finally learned a lesson: just about everyone, smart or stupid, seems to have a large ego.
So if everyone would just be a bit harder on themselves, and be their own worst critic, maybe the world would be a better place to live in. Of course, I wouldn't have anything to blog about. I know, I know. That wouldn't be such a bad thing.
