What a cruel topic…
It's been about two years now, but I still want to speak about it, as a reminder.
When you first enter the workplace, you'll probably meet certain people who are "proactively caring"—they're always there telling you when you make a mistake, "It's okay, I'll help you," or if you don't understand something, they'll go out of their way to assist. Over time, you start to believe they're genuinely good people, and you let your guard down.
Honestly, there are quite a few people like this, aren't there?
But how do you tell if someone is sincere? If you're not smart enough and too kind-hearted, you can only learn to grow through their betrayal.
This person was like this: while some colleagues take mistakes seriously, this coworker is incredibly tolerant, helping everyone out, volunteering details about colleagues' personalities and past secrets. After sharing everything, they emphasize, "I've only told you, okay?" Eventually, being too kind-hearted, you carelessly let your guard down and spill all your secrets. They might even pretend to sympathize and help you find solutions. Or when you mention misunderstandings with another coworker and want to clear things up, they use their "been there" experience to discourage you, suggesting it's safest to act like nothing happened.
But what you don't realize is that all these misunderstandings are orchestrated by them. They trade your secrets for others' secrets, then pretend to comfort you while stabbing you in the back, ultimately walking away unscathed. It's the other coworkers—people who could have gotten along fine—who get hurt and affected.
Of course, everyone has different personalities. Some stronger people easily see through such tricks. But fresh workplace newcomers are easy to trust others, especially during tough and difficult periods. They think that if someone extends a helping hand, that person must be good, must be a mentor. Betrayers exploit this psychological state, deliberately getting close to you, creating the illusion that they're someone you can rely on, slowly getting you to bare your heart and soul.
I must say, these kinds of people are absolutely despicable and utterly petty.
Because they only care about their own interests. Even if they're on good terms with others, when practical matters like salary, time off, and working hours come up, they might recklessly expose others' salaries and privacy, "spreading rumors" to suppress them or creating chaos in the company. Unfortunately, management often doesn't know the truth and might even back them up.
Betrayer, remember this: when you trade secrets for workplace friendships, you actually have no friends at all. Because almost everyone will eventually see through your tricks. And we thank you for this grand betrayal—it cost us countless sleepless nights of tears, but it also made us stronger through the pain and helped us recognize that this is the real world, and only you can rely on yourself.
