I'm holding my own against the office predator at my part-time job, but he's already got ammo on me. What's the play from here?
Part-time retail. Security guard, only other guy in the store, can't avoid him. He's the type who makes friends with you so he can collect personal info, then uses it against you the second he's mad. He's made multiple assistant managers cry and brags about it for months like it's a trophy. Management knows and does nothing.
I made the rookie mistake early on of sharing real stuff with him before I understood what he was. He's used some of it on me already. We had an incident, and I shook his hand to keep the peace because I didn't want to live in a war for the rest of my time there. I know that probably read as a flinch to him. It is what it is.
Since then, he tests me every now and then. Little jabs, weird comments, the kind of thing meant to make you defensive. I just laugh and play dumb. He doesn't get the reaction he wants and moves on. So far it's working. He hasn't gone for a bigger shot in a while.
But I'm aware of a few things:
He still has ammo on me he hasn't used
The testing won't stop, it'll just change shape
He's not going anywhere. Management isn't firing him
Holding the wall every shift drains me even when I'm winning the small exchanges
Questions for the sub:
Is the answer just "outlast and stay unreadable" forever, or is there a more active law to apply?
How do you handle a guy who already has ammo? Just refuse to react when he uses it?
Was the handshake a mistake, or a reasonable cost?
For the people who've worked next to a guy like this, what actually ended it? Did he self-destruct, did you leave, did something change?