A co-worker of mine is causing me some issues. If I were to describe him, I would say he is aggressive, rude, and emotionally unstable. Whenever something doesn’t go as he likes it he will curse more times than I have ever heard someone curse; he will yell at me, insult me or use condescending language; he will send me insulting or rude texts; and another co-worker informed me to stay away from him one day because he wanted to stab me. (He carries an army knife on him at all times.)

A challenge for me is I find it hard to relax after a hostile encounter with someone. Unlike other co-workers of mine that can brush this kind of behavior off, once I experience that ‘flight or fight’ mode, I find it really difficult to relax afterwards, therefore I have had a lot of stress about work. My therapist says this has to do with having been raised in an extremely violent household.

On Monday he was in my face yelling and cursing at me because I didn’t do something right (he didn’t explain what that was), I said to him, “You better watch your *******ing tone with me,” and he said nothing after that.

I fear this could escalate between us, but am I being over-reactive and sensitive, in which case I should do my best to ignore him, or do I have a legitimate cause to talk to my (and his) superiors about his behavior?