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[Alexandr Korol]

And because I had fallen into the underworld — meaning I had left the
world of wisdom and landed back in the lower realm — I immediately had a
reaction: “What? I don’t understand. We are to blame?” I mean, again, this
person is — to put it in quotes — a “fraud, a criminal,” and yet he phrases it as
if we are equally at fault? What am I guilty of? So I write back to this person:

— Listen, wait a second, what do you mean we are to blame? You realize that
you were the one doing bad things, and I was simply the one closing my
eyes to them?

You see, I wasn’t being rude; I was simply setting the record straight,
establishing correct boundaries of what is good and what is bad, right?
At which point the employee flies off the handle again and starts arguing
and attacking me. He writes that I am the bad one because I scolded him,
the “poor thing.” And I tell him:

— Wait, you have to understand that I scolded you for a reason. If you hadn’t
done those bad things, I wouldn’t have scolded you.
But he doesn’t want to think about that. He says:

— But you are also bad, Alex. You scolded me; you are mean.
— Listen, were there thoughts of returning to work and continuing to work
together?, — I asked him.
— Yes, — he says, — but I won’t return. I want to, but no, because I am afraid of
you, Alexandr. You are very mean. — He said it with that kind of emphasis.
— Look, understand this — if you want to work, you can return, and I promise
you that I won’t reprimand you. But you must understand: I won’t reprimand
you only if you don’t create the situations that force me to reprimand you.

And this person, for the first time, admits that yes — he understands that if
he hadn’t lied, stolen, and let me down, there likely wouldn’t have been any
conflicts at all. He admits that he was the one who started this whole mess.
Imagine that — he confessed it himself. In reality, this means the person’s ego
and pride had deflated just a little bit. But what happens next? This person
starts to humiliate me with his actions, saying: