A few weeks ago, I wrote about my Let Them Know theory—the antithesis to Mel Robbins’ Let Them Theory. As I said in that post, I’m a kind and generous person, but not necessarily a nice one—especially when someone disrespects me and willingly crosses my boundaries, or worse, comes for my kids.
Here’s the ugly truth: l have a penchant for holding grudges and I’m not above being spiteful and petty. Not exactly my best traits. And while I know I should probably work on that, sometimes it serves me.
Maybe this petty side is why I fell down the TikTok micropettiness page rabbit hole. I’m not endorsing this behavior, but, in all honesty, some of this stuff is inspired … Like, always typing a hated coworker’s name in slightly smaller font size than everyone else’s on a team agenda or other document; setting a bad roommate’s Netflix account to child mode; staring at the forehead of a frenemy when they’re talking so they think they have a pimple or something or something on their head; taking the remote control to the store “by accident” when your spouse is annoying you … You get the picture.
Some of the examples on TikTok cross a line, for sure. There’s petty and then there’s hurtful, bordering on criminal. But using a smaller font? Genius. If only I still worked in a corporate setting …
—LJDT
