I have a real job. I’m now a medical typist at a major Western Australian hospital. I thought I had landed the job of my dreams with high pay and good working conditions. It had a really good feel about it. Until I looked at the list of other typists I will be working with.

One of the girls who works there and is currently on annual leave till Monday is someone I worked with in a previous job three years ago. This woman and I were good friends because she has a degree in counselling and I was studying psychotherapy. We would stop after work and talk about our favourite subject, helping people, psychology and how the world works. I thought I had found a great friend with similar interests. I had no inkling of what was actually happening at the same time in a parallel universe.

One day without warning, I was called into the manager’s office. This woman had written an email to management stating I had threatened to kill her and resigned, effective immediately. She did the maximum amount of damage she could before disappearing in the ether. During the three months we worked together she was, to my face, a good friend, but behind my back she was spreading gossip and rumours. There was no way for me to predict this. There were no hints or suggestions of her two-faces. I had no idea.

I think, although I am not sure, because no-one actually told me any details, that the death threat was when I said in a laughing voice, “We work in such an enclosed space, sometimes I feel like killing you and so and so and I’m sure you feel like killing me sometimes as well.” Innocent things we have all said at one time or another. Management took this off the cuff remark very seriously and questioned me at length. I was very scared because this sort of stuff can end up in a tangle of litigation.

My therapist said she is a bully, and appeared to know that she was twisting my words around to suit her purpose at the time. The subsequent fall-out caused me much depression and I ended up engaging in some self-harm. I am now working with my therapist on strategies so I am not emotionally overwhelmed by her presence for 30 hours a week because as of this Monday when she gets back from annual leave she and I will be working ten feet from each other.

Now here’s the bit that adds a ghastly twist to the story. This woman has a brain tumour, secondary to her original cancer. When I knew her she had had breast cancer three times and a double mastectomy. Ordinarily I would have a lot of sympathy and compassion for someone in her position. Perhaps it explains her previous behaviour two years ago – or perhaps not.

I have to work with a small group of people who are friends with this woman and they have a lot of sympathy and compassion for her. I have to find a correct balance of civility, politeness and reserve in order to function effectively, do my job, get on with everyone else, not gossip or mention the past and go home at the end of the day feeling as though I handled myself with grace and dignity and not fall into the trap of self-medicating with alcohol and cigarettes.

Life truly is stranger than fiction.

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From Psych Central's website:
The People Whisperer | Therapy Unplugged (August 29, 2009)

    Last reviewed: 22 Aug 2009