Arghh... liberal coworker is driving me crazy

  • Thread starter Thread starter The_Angelus
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
T

The_Angelus

Guest
Yet another problem for the mill. I’m working part-time at a hospital, running tests and so on. Mostly it’s just set the samples in the machine, click a few buttons, and move on to the next one. It gets kind of boring after a while and there’s a lot of chitchat to get rid of the boredom.

My coworker, who shall remain nameless, is a flaming, red-hot, rhetoric-spewing liberal who is farther to the left than I am to the right. After the first couple of political decisions I remarked that neither of us was going to convince the other of anything and that we may as well just agree to disagree and talk about the weather or something.

She doesn’t like it. Every time I show up at work, she starts a discussion going. Her particular hot-button is homosexuality and, particularly, gay marriage. I am rabidly anti- to both, while she is just as rabidly pro- them. The first couple of days, this made for some interesting discussions. Now, it’s just gotten tiresome.

For instance, she argues that the Bible is just a book and is unacceptable as evidence against homosexuality. I said all right, and gave her a bunch of reasons from macroeconomics (i.e., married people create economic benefits in the form of children, and therefore receive tax breaks, while homosexuals cannot produce children and therefore should not receive the benefits that married couples do). She criticized me pretty violently for “reducing people’s lives and loves to something as petty and cold as academics.” I shrugged and scolded her for calling my economic logic useless. That was really when the flamewar started.

So, short of complaining to the supervisor (who enjoys watchign flamewars) how do I get this girl off my tail? I’m pretty sure that nothing I say or do is going to convince her, and she isn’t going to convince me, either. I don’t know what she hopes to gain other than entertainment value, and I don’t know why she is carrying on the debates. Any insight into motivation or possible means of stopping her is appreciated…

My baloney tolerance is about maxed out and I’m afraid that, with all the chemicals we keep around in the lab, that one of us is going to snap if the other does something a bit much. I’ve prayed for patience and conversion and so on, but unfortunately my personal cross is still rooted firmly into my back with no sign of being deplanted.

:confused:
 
Hello

Do not let her control you, I am againt homosexuality myself, I would ask her if she was one to be honest with you.

The bible is the truth, not just a book, it still applies today as it day from the first day.

The bible is a book of knowledge, but pray for the holy spirit to descend on both of you.

Patience comes with practice.

Do not let her wind you up.

God Bless
Saint Andrew.
 
I too worked with an awful person for 4 years. She wasn’t a liberal but a fundie ex-Catholic who used every opportunity to deride Catholicism in my presence. You know the passive aggressive means of speaking loudly to “someone else” but loud enough for you to hear - which is the object of the remark.
I went to her, to my boss, and to HR. No one would say a thing to her other than me and she used that conversation to flame me.
Finally, after 4 years of her ****, I transferred to another department just to get away from her.
Some people make your misery their mission in life and there’s not a thing you can do but put plenty of space between the offender and yourself.
I wish you the best! 🙂
 
My condolences, I’d recommend some good conservative books during the downtime, or possibly books on tape w/ headphones
and if that doesn’t work, earplugs!
 
If you want to shut her down, simply say, “I’ll pray for you.” And if she is a non-Catholic Evangelical or Baptist, say, “I’ll pray a novina on my Rosary for you.” :rotfl: Works on my family…
 
Great suggestions, dhgray!

I would also add that often times people just like to get others going, to pull their strings. If your co-worker sees that she’s not going to upset you (even though you might be steaming inside!), chances are she’ll back off.

Kill her with kindness and patience (both of which we need to pray for!) and who knows, maybe someday you’ll make a difference in her life!

I know for me, sometimes it helps if I change my own attitude towards someone like this. Instead of getting angry, I begin to feel sorry for them because they are so disillusioned and so far from the truth. Praying for them really does soften our own hearts as well.
 
40.png
dhgray:
If you want to shut her down, simply say, “I’ll pray for you.” And if she is a non-Catholic Evangelical or Baptist, say, “I’ll pray a novina on my Rosary for you.” :rotfl: Works on my family…
Click to expand...
Good one! 🙂
 
The_Angelus
I wish I got a chance to apply all my psychology knowledge to her, then it’s she will go crazy:D
 
Just love her and keep a smile on your face…easy to say… hard to do… and send up your suffering to Jesus.
 
Besides grin and bear it, ignore, give no reaction …you can always try to get this coworker to engage in some inductive reasoning analysis for the foundational basis for her held contentions and beliefs. From my experience, they have not thought through their positions to the logical conclusion/basis, because they do not believe in absolutes or an authority higher than their natural reasoning. Watch as they evade, obfuscate, rationalize …anything to avoid the depravity of the basis for their beliefs. Just keep taking them there, though they will not go there. Then you are back to ignore…
 
I can relate to what you’re going through, because I had to spend a whole school year with an anti-Catholic, liberal biology teacher. She would constantly say things that would indirectly degrade me and my fellow Catholics/Christians in the class for our beliefs.

When I was fed up with it, I asked my dad what to do. He suggested every time she would say something that I didn’t agree with, I ask her “Is that a fact, or is that your opinion?”

This finally, towards the end of the year, began to get her to shut up and class was much more bearable.
 
I remember my year stationed in Korea. One of my morning prayers is that all my thoughts, words, and deeds would bring Glory to Our Father, very aware that all the soldiers I worked with knew I was Catholic and everything I did or said was being watched. I was one of the only Catholic’s on my post, not to mention that there were very few “church-goers” at all.

I am sad to say that there were more days than I care to remember where the example that I set was not even close. At the end of the day in my prayers I would hang my head in shame.

I remember reading one morning where Paul was saying that he had a thorn in his side, that he had asked God to remove it, but it was still there so he accepted it as a chance to grow in strength and perseverence ( sorry about the quick paraphrase, I don’t know the reference, someone please feel free to add it in if you like). Well, I had a new co-worker that fit that description pretty well, sounds like the person you have to work with. Avoiding the individual was not an option, getting moved was not an option, and changing the person was not something I could do. So I started to do ta few things. In addition to my morning prayers, as I would see the person I would try really hard ( with constant prayer) to see Jesus in the person. When I had to interact with him, pretent I was talking to Jesus ( which is really hard to do when vile stuff is coming out of the persons mouth) I would really try to identify good things about the individual. And when his actions began to could my vision I would repeat over and over and over in my head JESUS AND MARY, JESUS AND MARY, JESUS AND MARY, until I felt HIS PEACE overcome my emotions.

It’s not easy, and it never will be easy. But then the evil one is going to do everything he can and use anyone he can to make OUR LORD look bad. It’s up to us to figure out how to fight him. I will say a prayer for you. And may GOd give you the strenght and perseverance you need to Glorify Him by your thoughts, words and deeds as well.

God Bless,
sgt. pat
 
Dear friend

The kindest way to evade her conversations is to say…’ I didn’t know I was so interesting to another person, anyone would think you are fixated with me ‘insert her name’. Are you fixated with me?’

She will deny she is. But she will also shut up.

God Bless you and much love and peace to you

Teresa
 
Correct me if I’m wrong, but isn’t God a liberal, didn’t She send her son to die to set us ‘free’ i.e. give us liberty. Didn’t she give adam and eve dominion? Why would humans want to restrict peoples freedom? What could be so wrong in your liberal friend believing in God’s good gift of Free Will?
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top