Schemer (N.) One Who Forms Schemes; A Projector; Esp., A Plotter; An Intriguer.

Schemers! They are all around you. Beware.

Not to incite panic or anything (haha, yeah, butterfly effect), I discovered that one of the guys I hang out with openly admitted to being a schemer. He plotted the downfall of a supposed ass. He thought about it and went to work at it. Slowly but surely, the premeditation and orchestration came together to see the outcome through. Goodness, I thought, I'd never thought of him that way.

Paranoia would ask if he was plotting against me. Not an unfair question in this context. And we don't even work together anymore. (Cue in Jaws music)

I was quite taken aback at this revelation. The conversation started with sizing people up and getting to know them at professional level through inter-personal interaction. Some people are better at this than others. Others apparently do the whole mental SWOT analysis after shaking hands and saying hello. Yikes.

I am quite the face value kind of person. Bring whatever you have on the table and we'll talk about it on even terms. I know we as account manager types would scheme internally to the 'right stuff' approved by the client by the way we presented and expressed our point of view. But that's for the sake and mental/physical welfare of all the poor sods who had to do the work later. But one on one plotting is something for soap operas to me.

I suddenly recalled an encounter about my first job. Shudder. I remember one of my colleagues from that job telling me how affected I looked when they told me about someone who got fired was badmouthing other colleagues including me. Yeah I was affected.

No, I am not naive as I sound but to meet people who see their path in life as one of upmanship through planned, tactical moves of, for the lack of better word, sabotage is alarming and appalling to a degree. I believe in the goodness of mankind knowing full well how evil we can be. Having it happen to oneself is another story. I mean we do bitch and moan about personalities we encounter but to go beyond expression to doing something to bring about his/her exit (or worse) is quite beyond me. Yeah, maybe nice guys do end up last. That's ok in my book. Assholes and schemers perhaps get the first slap of karma's hand.

Life must be tough for people like that, always got their eyes behind their backs and cranial wiring speculating about and conjecturing on others' motives and words. I guess seeing the world through different eyes must mean we deal with life in different ways.