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Relationships

Mumsnet has not checked the qualifications of anyone posting here. If you need help urgently or expert advice, please see our domestic violence webguide and/or relationships webguide. Many Mumsnetters experiencing domestic abuse have found this thread helpful: Listen up, everybody

Friendship with colleague gone badly wrong, what next?

8 replies

DaphneClarke · 31/08/2015 15:24

Have been close friends with a colleague for about 10 years. Over the past few years he has treated me like an absolute doormat and because I've been pretty vulnerable over the past few years I kept accepting it but now I don't want to go on like this.

He has form for ghosting me (suddenly going AWOL, not responding to texts, actively ignoring me at work) for months on end causing untold anxiety then coming back into my life and insisting it was all my fault. Basically I'm lonely and I kept thinking that a bad friendship with him was better than no friendship at all. I also justified it to myself that he is fatally flawed and that's what I liked about him Hmm

I don't have the mental energy to keep on like this being anxious about running into him - he will dip into offices if he sees me, and thus far has avoided all meetings I'm at by sending a colleague in his stead. I find his behaviour confusing and hurtful, I miss the friendship we had but I can't see a way of getting it back because I am too hurt by how he has treated me during what has been a really bad time in my life.

The last time we met up for drinks it was all lovely (although he did mention that his girlfriend was not happy about his friendship with me and that he was keeping our meetings secret!), and a few weeks later I offered to shout him lunch for his birthday and he said no he was busy. I did reply to that text with a casual 'well maybe another time then?' and then heard nothing and started being blanked at work.

Where do I go from here? I know what I should do - be professional, polite, only engage about work (I can see a project together looming on the horizon), but I also want to tackle him about his heartless and cowardly behaviour lest he be convincing himself it is once again all my fault. I know he wants me to go away quietly without him having to actually speak to me about it, but there's this raw edge of the friendship left hanging that I just want to neaten off.

OP posts:
OurBlanche · 31/08/2015 15:29

Block, delete all but work contacts.

Practice a polite smile and 'good morning' and take a sharp pair of scissor to that ragged edge.

Buckle up and move on. He is not interested in being a friend, yes, he is a coward and yes, his partner doesn't like/trust the idea of you. So make like he is just another boring colleague... nothing interesting here.

Good luck.

TPel · 31/08/2015 15:30

I'm sorry he has hurt you but he is a twat. He isn't your friend. This isn't how friends treat each other. In fact you wouldn't treat a vague acquaintance that way.

I suggest forgetting this person and keeping things totally professional at work.

My template for treatment is - if I wouldn't treat someone that way, why should I accept that treatment in turn?

pocketsaviour · 31/08/2015 15:30

Forget talking to him, it's pointless. He's already proved he's a coward by ducking into offices when he sees you coming! You're not going to get "closure" from him.

Make some new friends - try meetup.com to find local interest groups. Start dating. Take up a hobby. And maybe think about changing jobs or moving to a new department?

DragonsCanHop · 31/08/2015 15:31

Oh god, I could not be arsed with this at all.

Just tell him straight. You can't have people like him as a friend, blowing hot and cold. Using you as some secret with his girlfriend? Ugh, tell him to get over himself and leave you alone.

Delete and block, remain proffessional at work and congratulate yourself on being well rid.

springydaffs · 31/08/2015 15:45

No wonder you're lonely if you accept appalling treatment like this!

Ach, op, i know that sounds such a heartless thing to say. But, really, wtf is going on that you accept this?? He is VILE. Nothing flawed going on here, just a vile emotional terrorist. Stop being so understanding!

You'll feel so much better about yourself, far less lonely, if your first friend is YOU.

Btw is there any reason your friendship hasn't progressed into a romantic relationship?

DaphneClarke · 31/08/2015 16:08

I know, I'm a doormat. But I WAS a good and loyal friend to him, and that's what I struggle with. That I was there when he needed me (he was going through a separation when we first met) but when I needed him he decided he had better things to do and acted so cowardly.

I joined meetup.com a few months back but haven't had the guts to make it to anything yet!

I've been with my DP for about as long as I've known this 'friend' so it's never been a romantic friendship it was always platonic.

OP posts:
OurBlanche · 31/08/2015 16:14

Hands OP the scissors... snip snip.

He is a shit friend. He has let you down. Tough!

Stop struggling with it. He is a selfish pillock. Move on.

For your own sake STOP FUCKING THINKING ABOUT HIM AND HIS REASONS FOR LIVING.

He is an insignificant worm in an enormous multiverse. Sod him!

Atenco · 31/08/2015 16:39

I had a friend like that once. When the friendship was good, it was very, very good, but when it was bad it was horrid. I just had to call it a day in the end. They only get so many chances to hurt our feelings.

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