I think part of my difficulty in life comes from being too inflexible at times and not enough at others. My co-worker would laugh and say smugly, “Well, Friday, that’s a difficulty for most people,” in order to indicate that I’m nobody special.

I struggle with this issue particularly in my relationships with co-workers.

Rather than fight what feels bad, I’m learning to just go with things and see how they turn out. Because otherwise, I would be an immense ball of stress at the end of each and every day and no better off.

Lately, however, I’ve had to completely cut off communication with the sales guy – emails aside - because he has no boundaries and will otherwise occupy far too much of my headspace. And currently, I’m trying to think of the best way to tell another co-worker that I don’t want to walk to work with her anymore.

It’s been probably 20 years since I’ve been in an ongoing, disrespectful relationship with someone I wasn’t dating. I had one abusive friend while growing up and that experience was more than enough to teach me that if a person is constantly trying to make you feel badly about who you are and what you’re trying to achieve, it’s probably best to permanently withdraw the friendship. But people grow up and the boundaries of friendship are pretty clear for most, so I’m a little surprised to find myself in a similar situation with someone I don’t even spend time with outside of work.

I won’t go into details, but suffice to say that every time I have a conversation with this person, I’m left feeling as though I’ve just been in battle. It finally dawned on me a little while ago that she’s been disguising personal attacks behind a mask of concern. So on our walk to work this morning, I made a concerted effort to say nothing about my personal life. And do you know what? She still managed to lure me back into defensive mode by picking holes in the issues she’s already aware of, without any prompting on my part whatsoever.

So I think it’s over. It’s too bad in a way, since I don’t have any other close work friends. And apart from Bruce, she’s the only other person I relate to on a daily basis. It would have been nice to have a confidant who understood the sorts of things I’m going through in this vaguely surreal business environment, but I think I’d rather retain the small amount of confidence I possess than fritter it all away on someone as bitter as my ex-friend.

Anyway, this is step one of sorting out the life that exists between the hours of nine to five. I still have to come up with the best way to initiate the break-up. I’m taking the path less honest, however, as I’d rather not hurt her feelings. I realise this is selfish on my part, but she’s a smart girl. I’m sure she’ll figure it out.