Not sure where else to turn

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It’s funny that you bring this up because about a week ago I started putting together a “list of lists” for working on my “ideal self”, and the 7 deadly sins/contrary virtues were on that list.

“Imprisoned” is probably the best word, at least for me. Makes sense given that my main life goal as of late has been to avoid risks.
 
I do not, unfortunately, and the website for my diocese doesn’t present any information that would give me any indicators. The best I have is my parish priest, who is aware of my scrupulosity (I told him) but didn’t have much to recommend about it. I suspect he thinks I have it under control.
 
What’s funny is the job you describe is not my current job, but my previous job, and I left it for all these reasons and more. What upsets me about my current situation is merely the fact that this person reminds me of the very corporate dysfunction/corruption that I escaped from. Other than this issue, I actually love where I work and what I do.

That job turned me into a very hostile person that I did not like or even recognize. The problem now is that I’m feeling that same transformation taking place, but I am helpless because I am forced to be in the office (I normally work from home) due to…this same executive’s child now being one of our interns and me having to essentially babysit this person by teaching them things, which makes it that much harder to do my actual work.

I would go back to grad school if I didn’t already have a masters degree, and frankly I don’t think I can stomach any more formal schooling. I burned out first semester of grad school and forced myself to finish.
 
The virtues: key to finding heaven on earth and in our struggle toward eternal heaven. Sin comes naturally, so i would pare that list down to the virtues. As to prisons, the most cruel of all is the one we construct for ourselves. Others would be more merciful toward us.
 
AliasMandatory said:
this same executive’s child now being one of our interns and me having to essentially babysit this person by teaching them things, which makes it that much harder to do my actual work.
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If nothing else, I can relate to this one. I’ve seen executive’s children get nice jobs and internships several times. It is not fair and not productive.

My solution was to leave these type of corporate jobs altogether. I keep thinking back to the many Dilbert cartoons where you need to check your soul in like a coat “soul check” when entering certain environments.

The weirdest story I have is when I interviewed for some corporate position in LA. The manager I talked to calmly explained to me that one of the employees had dropped dead (form a brain aneurism) in the office and others had quit. All in all more employees were needed…as they kept quitting or dying. He went on to tell me that the one that had dropped dead wasn’t all that good anyway so it was no great loss.

Like others have said there is a spiritual side to this of making things work in whatever environment you are in. Some times these corporate environments are just so bad that you can never make it work.
 
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Yeah I understand, I’m 27 and I’m beginning to
feel the same way. Some times those groups can be cliquey. Well, hope things get better. Being Catholic definitely is hard
 
Thanks to everyone who has offered prayers and suggestions, it is greatly appreciated.
 
Yes, exactly. It’s like driving: you will naturally go where you are looking. To “drive” our soul safely, we need to focus far more on the virtues than on sins.
 
I doubt this person I’m dealing with has that level of disregard for others’ humanity (I can’t believe someone would say that to you or anyone else), but I can tell that this person probably views others as little more than tools to be used to achieve an objective. I can sense this when they start asking me seemingly random questions about things tangentially related to whatever I am working on…they’re just bleeding me dry for knowledge they can use to build themselves up. It makes me sick, and that’s part of what drives my anger.
 
AliasMandatory said:
they’re just bleeding me dry for knowledge they can use to build themselves up. It makes me sick, and that’s part of what drives my anger.
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I’ve been there too. That part of being in a corporate environment is very tough. On one level an intern should be mentored on the basics and other colleagues should be helped with understanding the basics of what you are doing. However it is really hard to bounce ideas off you colleagues in the corporate world. Ideas don’t bounce, they get stolen. Some employees really will steal your ideas or the progress you’ve made on a project. Of course this stuff used to happen to me until I got a little more savvy. I remember once when I was first starting off my career, a manager really wanted me to read the report another employee had written to help me understand how to do my job better. The manager hands me the report, and I tell her “I wrote the report”…I did write that report and somebody had taken credit for it.

Matthew 7:6 says (I’m paraphrasing a little) don’t throw your pearls before swine because they will trample them and turn around and maul you. You shouldn’t trust others that haven’t earned your trust with your best ideas. At least that is part of how I interpret this scripture.

One effective way to do this is summarized by an Irish poet from Northern Ireland…Seamus Heaney “Whatever You Say, Say Nothing”. This has been very effective advice in some of the more difficult environments I’ve worked in.
 
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You know, I’m actually around on these forums solely because I often am as you describe yourself. For some reason it helps me to come somewhere where I can have my voice heard without worrying; I don’t know anybody and no one knows me. For some reason this helps me.
The other thing that I do when I’m like that is (although I know it sounds unrelated to the problem) run. Running helps me because it breaks monotony while making me feel like I’ve accomplished something. It takes all my focus and willpower, leaving nothing left for brooding. When I start my day with that feeling of exuberance (after a morning run) I am better able to relax and, by doing so, endure irritating and obnoxious people. I don’t know if this would help you as it helps me, but, if I were to give you any advice, it would be for you to try running every morning for a week or so.
 
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