The Coworker Who’s Always “Just Being Honest”

Roughly one in four workers report regular incivility on the job — being talked over, having their input dismissed, having their competence questioned without cause. A meaningful chunk of that comes from a small number of people who’ve decided their bluntness is a virtue rather than a habit they’ve never had to examine.

It shows up as interrupting people in meetings and calling it efficiency. It shows up as dismissing someone’s idea before they finish the sentence, then raising the same idea twenty minutes later as your own. It shows up as taking credit for collaborative work because you did the part you’ve decided counts as the real work.

Confidence at work is fine. It’s often necessary. Confidence that requires making someone else smaller in order to feel earned is the actual problem, and it’s usually the person doing it who’s least aware they’re doing it, because from the inside it just feels like standards.

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