How to handle bitter old men with ego problem

Someone lamented to me last night that the organisation she works for has came under attack for no apparent reason.

She sounded a bit depressed.

However, when she told me who was the attacker, I just laughed.

"Don't worry lah. That guy's words don't carry much weight anymore after Dr Mahathir resigned as the PM," I told her.

Well, actually the guy's words have not been carrying much weight for quite awhile even before that due to credibility issues.

I believe that he was just lashing out because he didn't get what he wanted.

You see, this guy was going after this other chap, whom I always regard as a good person, for quite a while for reasons I believe was purely personal.

At one point he must have thought he had won after his target was forced to resign from his post after GE14.

But then, the Pakatan government collapsed and the new administration deemed it necessary to get back the services of that targeted person.

So, once again this guy attacked his target in the hope of preventing the appointment.

Again, it must be a very personal thing, Most likely the targeted person did not give what he wanted or did not give him enough respect thus bruising his ego.

But seriously, the targeted person is really the most helpful, humble and respectful corporate figure I have ever met. He remained so during his short national duty stint as a minister.

Anyway, the appointment went through and the targeted person is now holding one of the most important posts in the country.

I believe the attack told to me last night was actually a random one. More like the guy lashing out in frustration because of the appointment.

However, the person who complained to me about it was sure that her organisation was specifically targeted.

"Well, maybe your boss had in some way offended the guy just like in the case of his previous target. It sounded that way from the wordings of the blog post. I don't think he's going after your organisation per se," I told her.

Anyway, I advised her to just ignore the attack.

"He's probably just trying to scare your boss into listening to him as he thought he's still influential. Trust me, he's not anymore. He's just old and and being once influential, now has bad ego management issue because no one really listen to him anymore. At best, your boss should just humour him, okay," I said to her.

Sigh. Bitter old men drifting into irrelevancy are quite tricky to handle.

You can't whack them because they are old and appear helpless but you can't be too nice with them either as they could turn really toxic.

I did experience this problem before and based on that, I recommend for them to be ignored and avoided.

Just pretend that they are not there and just let them rave and rant all they want to themselves.

Ya, give it a try, as it may work for you as it worked for me.

Hahaha...can't believe I'm giving out this kind of free advice during this Covid-19 crisis.

Eh, here, enjoy this song pulak,

Smile and be positive. Cheers.