When Energy Vampires Strike at Work (Part 1)
Identifying Them

When Energy Vampires Strike at Work (Part 1)
Identifying Them

It swished past me creating a light breeze and I knew it had come.

In that moment, it whispered something into my ears. It was soft yet piercing. That intimidating voice and warm moist rotten breath paralysed me – the entire me. I was terrified. Beads of sweat started rolling down my panic-stricken face and a chill blanketed me. I wanted to let out a cry for help but my throat was blocked. Anxiety and frustration crept up on me and all I could do was to freeze. My whole body became limp from the attack.

“You managed the event horribly this morning.” It said.

Those were merely the few words that creature put into my ears and it somehow managed to drain my energy and soul away, so instantly. Yes, you guessed it. No drawing of blood like those blood suckers in the movies. However, although the attack kept me alive, the effects were gruesome – my blood pressure rose, my heart started to palpate faster, my emotions consisting of guilt, shame, annoyance, frustration, anxiety, sadness, fear and disgust ran amok, my tears began inching out, my fingers trembled and my ears could hear that muffled silence when you enter a sound-proofed room. With my bloodshot eyes and a face as pale as a corpse, I sat at my table totally incapacitated.

Without the need to elaborate more, that creature was my colleague. Although it was certainly an exaggerated recount of what happened to me years back, the abominable effects from the emotional assault were undeniably unfeigned and I am sure that many of you reading this article can attest to it.

Dandapani who is a Hindu priest, entrepreneur and a former monk of ten years living in New York, would probably term these people ‘Energy Vampires’. They are people who simply sap your energy at the lowest level and cause psychological and emotional pain at the other extreme. While some ‘vampires’ are conscious of their actions, others may be less intentional. Nevertheless, the psychoemotional distress caused by these vampires is usually inexpressibly poignant to their victims.

Before you start hanging strings of garlic at your work desk or around your neck, you need to understand that Energy Vampires are no ordinary vampires. Garlics do not generally have any effects on them. I must say, some even love them, literally. So learning how to identify them and protect yourself against their attacks are key. Like it or not, they are constantly lurking amongst us and there is no way we can avoid them totally, even in broad daylight.

There are three main ways to identify these vampires. Firstly, acquire knowledge of their types. This keeps you on the alert when you see one. Secondly, make good use of your sixth sense. Sometimes our gut instinct tells us a lot. Lastly, employ your emotional thermometer. Most of the time, we may have an inkling of what is happening within us emotionally, but we either have little knowledge of what is really going on within or may disregard those emotions totally.

While you can heighten the sensitivity of your sixth sense and emotional thermometer through more awareness, practise and experience, it may still be difficult to identify these Energy Vampires without knowing their characteristics. Let me now take you through knowing some of the more common ones.

Common Types of Energy Vampires

The Joker Vampire – Goes around making jokes when people are busy.

The Joker Vampires love to go around cracking jokes when the victims are at their busiest. They cut the momentum of their work and disrupt their chain of thoughts. It is sometimes difficult to decide whether to entertain the Joker Vampire. They get easily offended if their victims chose to ignore them but to give them attention renders a stronger attack. To add to the complexity of the matter, if the jokes were lame, the victims may also roll their eyes or gesture a face-palm, unknowingly. Be careful, as these will invite more attacks subsequently. Joker Vampires find these gestures cute and are attracted to people who roll their eyes or face-palm at their jokes. 

Potency Level: (1 to 2) out of 10.

Side Effects: Irritableness, some frustration and exhaustion will be experienced.

The ‘I-know-you-can-do-it’ Vampire – Gives excessive encouragement.

Encouragement and affirmations are good for personal growth. Everyone likes to be encouraged and be told that they have done something right. However, too much encouragement may also be detrimental to one’s well-being. The victims of these vampires first fall prey when they get attached to the initial encouragement. Subsequently, they start to get really exhausted when they are being pushed over their limits. Work starts to become more challenging and workload starts to increase. The ‘I-know-you-can-do-it’ Vampires continue to encourage their victims to keep going at their jobs but without providing much support. They also take their victims’ concerns or failures lightly – dismissing concerns and failures by seeing them as part and parcel of learning. Sometimes, doubt may arise if these vampires were just shirking off their responsibilities.  

Potency Level: 3 out of 10

Side Effects: Delusion, burnout and exhaustion will be experienced.

The Long-winded Vampire – Likes to hold long conversations.

Verbal diarrhoea is the weapon used by Long-winded Vampires. They attack by smearing their incessant words onto their victims, paralysing them right at the start. There is no way to retaliate. These vampires go louder and faster when their victims wish to say something and get even more excited when, out of respect, they look interested. Their ultimate attack is by repeating themselves. This attack is progressive. Don’t be fooled by the seemingly normal conversation at the start. It will become a chant in no time and their victims will be hypnotised.

Potency Level: 4 out of 10.

Side Effects: Anxiety, increasing levels of annoyance, guilt from the need to stop the conversation, acute schizophrenia – the victims will continue to hear the vampires’ voice even after the conversation.

The Silent Vampire – Can you just say something?

They usually give their victims a silent glare. The silence usually makes their victims feel uncomfortable and induces all sorts of guesses in their mind. Their victims will start to ruminate if they had done or said anything that was offensive or question if they had been unclear with what was said. Generally, the Silent Vampires do not disclose what they are thinking. It makes teamwork and building collegial relationships really difficult and leads to feelings of insecurity.

Potency Level: 5 out of 10.

Side Effects: Confusion, paranoia and feelings of insecurity will be experienced.

The Foul-mouthed Vampire – Nothing better to say.

Their mouths stink. These vampires do not provide constructive feedback and all they know is to criticise, blame and complain. Most of the time they are void of creativity and are unable to contribute constructively. We are not too sure why these vampires behave this way, but one possible hypothesis is that they are emotionally insecure. To criticise, blame and complain are probably ways they assert authority to safeguard their ego. They are usually the least confident ones in the Vampire Family. However, their attacks are potent. They do not just drain their victims’ energy. They also drain their self-esteem.

Potency Level: (6 to 7) out of 10.

Side Effects: Depends. Please refer to the chart below.

If you are a…	Side Effects
Newbie (First few years at work)	Low self-esteem, self-doubt, confusion, feels alone.
Normal Veteran	Irritableness, annoyance, feels like slapping the vampire.
Wise Veteran	No side effects – zen.

The Head Prefect Vampire – I am watching what you are doing.

The Head Prefect Vampires are sneaky attackers. Their main attack tactic is to catch their victims doing wrong. Very often, these vampires initiate their first attack at a distance without their victims realising it and when they do exhibit their moves, dire consequences are guaranteed. They will list all their victims’ errors, blunders, oversights, slips etc. when they summon them for a meeting. They will try to put their victims down as much as they can, in the pretext of wanting to help them improve. However, by the time they complete going through the list with their victims, their victims would have been overwhelmed by guilt, anguish and despondency. These emotions can never be helpful in helping anyone improve.

Potency Level: 8 out of 10

Side Effects: Paranoia – constantly on a look out of the Head Prefect Vampire, feelings of guilt, complete exhaustion after work.

The Backstabber Vampire – Talking bad things about you in a deceitful manner.

This needs little explanation. They are considered the most timid vampires in the Vampire Family. They usually do not dare to confront their victims upfront and resort to backstabbing without getting their facts right, so that they could either gain credit through the act or at least to get their victims into trouble. The attack often leaves their victims dumbfounded, as if a huge blow was given to their heads. Such attacks drain their victims’ energy almost immediately, when they finally realise that they have been backstabbed.

Potency Level: 9 out of 10

Side Effects: Sleepless nights, paranoia – heightened weariness of the vampire, total exhaustion.

The Hybrid Vampire – A mixture of any of the above.

The Hybrid Vampires are the most potent. Whichever combinations the vampires evolve into, will definitely cause ruckus in their victims’ life. Vampires with both the Head Prefect and Backstabber traits are the most dangerous and vampires with both the Joker and Long-winded characteristics are potent enough to sap their victims’ energy which they have been trying hard to conserve for the day’s work. In any case, be prepared for an ultimate attack when you meet one.

Potency Level: (5 to 10) out of 10.

Side Effects: All of those mentioned earlier.

Stay tuned for Part 2 of this blog to know how you can combat these Energy Vampires.

Image credit: paintingvalley