an interpersonal difficulty

[boxofdelights]

There is someone who sometimes goes to Wiscon that I don't want to interact with. We have lots of friends in common, but this is not a problem: when they join a conversational group that I'm in, I leave. However. Last Wiscon, every time this person entered a party room or the consuite when I was already there, they immediately joined the conversational group that I was in. I don't know whether this was on purpose. I might just always have been talking to the most interesting people in the room. But if it was on purpose, it's a problem. I suppose I should talk to them about it, but (1) I don't want to interact with them; (2) if it was on purpose, I don't see any good outcome; (3) if it wasn't on purpose, I think a response of, "Now that you've pointed it out, I'll avoid it when it doesn't inconvenience me," is a million times less likely than, "Now that you've pointed it out, I will do this on purpose to teach you that you don't get to control who I talk to."

Advice?

Comments

[wild_irises]

I third (or fourth) the friends suggestion. Since you don't want to interact with this person, two or three of your close peeps should know who the person is and be able to run some interference. Possibly someone else should talk to the problem person, but the talker-to would have to be awfully good at intervening.

[amaebi]

+1