10 Irritating Stereotypes You Meet In Every Office

4. The Martyr

Also Known As: The Perpetual Victim, The Cross Bearer, The Oppressed Identifying Traits: The world and everybody in it are out to get him, and they have been since the day he was born. The Martyr has never gotten anything close to a fair shake in life, because the deck has always been unfairly stacked against him. If your desk is next to his, The Martyr will tell you all about how he's too good for this job, how the quality of his work is totally unappreciated by his idiotic supervisors, and how if he'd just gotten a couple of lucky breaks along the way, he would've wound up with George Clooney's looks and Warren Buffett's money. Native Habitat: A cocoon of self-pity that is impervious to pragmatism or rationale. The Martyr is the master of the self-reinforcing delusion. He knows, beyond a shadow of a doubt, that he had the potential for greatness in this life, but that greatness was snatched away by a cruel and oppressive world full of loathsome, devious people who conspired to deprive The Martyr of what was rightfully his. Career Trajectory: Static at best. The Martyr claims to desire upward mobility, but his actions indicate the opposite; in fact, the more severe his perceived level of oppression becomes, the more his persecution complex is reaffirmed and validated.