Burning bridges
Been hearing the phrase ‘Never burn bridges’ thrown around a lot so I’m asking all the working professionals in SG (or beyond if you migrated abroad) how true this is?
The reason I’m curious is because I realised that this mentality makes me very conflict-averse. I really try not to argue with anyone for fear of making enemies. And lowkey become very worried about people’s opinions
Unfortunately this habit has resulted in me being seen as a bit of a pushover? And I notice I tend to remain cordial with people that I really cannot stand who dislike me on a personal level too instead of just telling them to piss off and it’s super tiring
Case in point got this one dude in my office who hated me because I was a blur cock (not wrong I really dgaf since this is NS). But even though he openly disliked me I just kept quiet because I didn’t want to ‘burn the bridge’ by calling him out and speaking up. Until last month when I really couldn’t suck it up anymore and just completely blew up at him when he targeted me for something unfair.
Now there’s a deep mutual enmity lol
I’ll often feel the need to get people to like me, extrapolating this philosophy to ‘build as many bridges as possible’ even though frankly these are not people I’m very interested in being friends with.
I know this is a very unhealthy way to approach relationships so I’m wondering if anyone has thoughts on the whole ‘never burn bridges’ philosophy. Are there any nuances to it? Or is it just bullshit that makes people accept a lot of crap for no reason
How do you reconcile this idea of ‘never burning bridges’ with ‘stop caring about what other people think and stop trying to get people to like you’
Thanks! Would really appreciate insights from experienced working professionals or students