In the world of business you inevitably meet a very mixed bunch of people. Most of them I find to be really nice people, often more like me than I care to admit. (I like to think I'm a bit of a paradox in the business world - an old eccentric hippy, surviving in a sea of corporate whoredom.) Almost always trying to find a balance between the long hours and pressure of our jobs while trying to maintain some modicum of a home life.

While most are nice people in essence, they can become absolute savage beasts in some circumstances. I actually think that can be quite a good thing in someone who is otherwise ‘normal’ in as much as they are nice and kind in most situations. If someone who I trust to be a decent soul throws a wobbly at me or in a Board Meeting, then you know the issue is really important to them and so you take it seriously. I’ve been in a Board Meeting all day and it goes on for the whole of tomorrow too so there have been one or two such rantings and you recognise the importance to that person.

There are, though, some who are just savage beasts with no redeeming features at all. Often they are the ones who are screaming naked ambition from the rooftops and equally often they are the ones with little real talent, just a need to trample whoever they deem necessary in order to climb to the top of the tree.

Recently I have been dealing with a situation where someone has been trying to stab me in the back for some unknown reason. I actually (and genuinely) have no idea why this is happening. I don’t have many direct dealings with the individual concerned and certainly am not in the way of that ambition unless it is in some obscure way that I can’t fathom. Whatever the reason, it’s really getting my goat. I dunno, maybe it’s worse because I can’t see a rational explanation for the behaviour. Maybe too it’s because I feel that after traipsing round the world doing my best for the business, I find myself on the defensive on my home turf.

As a general rule, you can spot these folks a mile off and can usually work out where and why they will behave as they do. Then it’s simply a matter of avoidance tactics. You know, making sure you dot I’s and cross t’s so they can’t do you any harm. On this occasion, I spotted the ambition and recognised the dangerous nature of this beast, but didn’t see the blows coming from behind me. Maybe I’m just too tired to do my usual thinking on such matters. Maybe because I’ve not been travelling by train recently very much I’ve not had my usual ‘thought time’ to assess the situation and work out a strategy for coping.

I just know that I am thoroughly fed up with it and can’t wait to find a way to quash the problem. Which I will. When I get back to being able to think straight. Which at the moment I can’t. I’m still suffering the ill-effects of the Salmonella and am so drained and tired I’m finding it quite difficult to function even at 50% of my normal levels of energy and drive.

Time will heal my sick soul but will it be too late for me to stop the damage of the ‘savage beast’ who is blighting my world at the moment?

Last year work woes were on my mind, but then it was time that was bugging me and two years ago I was on the case of the local property developers!