u/Nakliduniya

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I’m generally a very jolly, supportive, and friendly person at work. I like helping people, sharing whatever I know, and keeping the workplace environment positive. I get along well with almost everyone.

But there is one coworker whose behavior towards me is really starting to frustrate and confuse me.

He never directly says that he dislikes me. In fact, whenever he talks to me personally, he behaves completely normally and sometimes very nicely.

But when I’m not directly interacting with him, he seems to constantly make fun of me in front of other people.

For example, if I send some documents or work to my manager, he will apparently go around making jokes about it with others. Then later he’ll come to me and talk as if absolutely nothing happened.

Today I gave a demo to my manager. During/after the demo, this coworker was making faces, gesturing as if I should “add more sugar” / being overly sweet with the manager, and at one point even made an obscene gesture while mocking me.

That genuinely irritated me.

The confusing part is that I have never treated this person badly.

Quite the opposite.

I’ve always spoken respectfully to him. I’ve openly appreciated his knowledge and experience. I’ve even told him that whatever I know, I’m happy to share with him, and I’ve never tried to compete with him or make him feel inferior.

Sometimes I actually go out of my way to make him feel respected/superior because I don’t want unnecessary ego clashes at work.

And yet this behavior keeps happening.

I’m starting to wonder whether it’s insecurity, jealousy, dislike, competition, or whether he simply enjoys getting laughs by making someone else the target.

I also don’t want to become a cold, serious, guarded person at work just because one person behaves like this.

I genuinely like being cheerful, supportive, approachable, and helpful. I don’t want someone else’s behavior to change a part of my personality that I actually like.

At the same time, I don’t want being nice to be interpreted as “this guy won’t say anything, so we can keep making fun of him.”

So I’d genuinely like perspectives from different kinds of people — managers, senior professionals, people who have dealt with workplace politics, people who have been on either side of something like this, etc.

How would you handle this?

I’m especially interested in how to set boundaries without becoming bitter, aggressive, or changing my naturally friendly behavior with everyone else.

I don’t need this guy to like me. I just want basic professional respect and I want to know how to handle this maturely.

Back in 2014, I wrote the COMEDK exam, but my rank wasn’t good enough to get into the college I wanted through regular counseling.

At that time, I had one clear thought in my mind — college is an investment.

I knew if I compromised too much on college quality, placements and future opportunities could become difficult. So my family and I decided to explore management quota admissions in Bengaluru.

And honestly, this is where the real risk starts.

Not management quota itself… but finding the right people.

These days, many consultants are just focused on printing money without caring about the emotions of parents or the future of students. Families are already stressed, and some people take advantage of that pressure.

After some basic research, I finalized one consultant.

Not here to promote or defame anyone, just sharing my experience.

He confidently told us:

“You’ll get admission in the exact college you want. Pay the service charge of ₹40K only after admission is done, otherwise no charge.”

At first, it sounded fair and trustworthy.

But later I understood the actual game.

They first block your money mentioning your preferred college name and ask you to wait. Then slowly, as counseling time passes and seats start filling up, pressure begins.

“Seats are almost full now.”

“You should consider another college.”

“Don’t waste a year.”

“This is the best option left.”

And that pressure works emotionally on parents because nobody wants their child to lose one academic year.

Luckily for me, one of my friends personally knew that consultant because he was their family relative.

He quietly advised me:

“Don’t depend completely on consultants. Go directly to the college and check.”

Somehow, with his help, we recovered the blocked amount and directly approached the college ourselves.

Thankfully, I got admission.

Out of gratitude, we even tried giving him ₹25K as a thank-you amount, but he refused because of the family connection.

So yes, after my experience, I can say this:

Management quota itself is not necessarily bad.

But greedy consultants and middlemen can make the process risky and emotionally exhausting.

Sharing this because recently I’ve been seeing many stories and discussions about management quota admissions in Bengaluru, and I thought maybe my experience could help someone or at least make parents/students a little more careful.