I work with a man who at the beginning I genuinely liked him, but after 7 years of working with him I've finally seen his true colours.
He craves attention constantly and its so draining.
He will start a conversation with me, such as asking if I had a nice trip to London, to which I'll say "yeah it was great thanks .... " for him to interrupt and starts a 20 minute conversation about his trip.
Another example, he once told everyone in the office that he had a date with a guy who he was chatting to over the internet that evening. The next morning he doesn't turn up for work and doesn't phone in sick.
Cue colleagues ringing and texting him non-stop, and even ringing his mother all thinking he had met some mass murderer. He then strolls in 5 hours late without a care in the world having not returned a single call or text.
I really could go on.
The latest incident has left a rather bitter taste in my mouth.
He had a weekend away recently. It emerged that during this weekend he'd tried to commit suicide by jumping off a building.
I happened to see that he wrote a status on Facebook thanking the police for all their help. Firstly the police are never going to see that status, and of course there were lots of comments asking why.
He has also made it his duty to tell everyone at work that he tried to commit suicide. The way he told me it was like he was telling me what he had for dinner the other night. When I didn't react and told him that I already heard, he carried on talking about it anyway.
He also left voicemails on a few of our colleagues phones saying goodbye.
I have been to that dark place before and I wouldn't have dreamed going around telling people like it was some piece of gossip. I know a very close friend who confided in me that she had considered it before, again she only told people she trusted 100%.
Suicide is such a terrible and devastating thing and wrecks so many lives, that to feel he's used it as an attempt to attention seek makes me so angry!
(Just as a side note his close friends, family and managers know about this and are obviously better suited at dealing with it so if by a small chance it is a cry for help than it's not being ignored)