I need a plan for dealing with passive-aggressive people. Or an inoculation. If I do some research I bet the Internet will yield herbal supplements, self-help books and scads of “Tip Sheets” for managing these relationships.

Maybe I can start a 12 step program for Managing Passive-Aggressive People (and Yourself!) MPAPy:

Step 1 -We admit we are powerless over their behavior, and that our blood pressure has become unmanageable

Step 2 -We believe that a Power greater than ourselves will SMITE them and restore our workplace to reality

Step 3 -We decided to turn our will and our lives over to the care of Dr. Phil as we understand he hates that s**t as much as we do

Step 4 -We have made a searching and fearless moral inventory of every passive-aggressive person we have ever worked with, worked for, lived with or just had to put up with because our idiot brother married her

Step 5 – We have admitted to the blog-o-sphere, to ourselves and to another human being the exact nature of the wrongs visited upon us by passive-aggressive people and those times we did not verbally clean their clock

Step 6 – We are entirely ready to have Dr. Phil remove all those defects from their character

Step 7 – We humbly ask Dr. Phil to remove our guilt at confronting those among us who are afflicted with this terrible disease, for yea though they seem weak, they are vicious and sneaky

Step 8 – We have made a list of all passive-aggressive people we did not confront and are now willing to step to them all

Step 9 – We will make direct comments to passive-aggressive people wherever possible, except when to do so would cause us to throw a chair at them

Step 10 – We continue to take personal inventory of the buttons we allow to be pushed and promptly admit this in a factual way that will not increase their martyrdom quotient

Step 11 – We have sought through reflection and meditation to improve our conscious contact with our “inner Dr. Phil”, as we understand Dr. Phil, praying for the power to override guilt and self-blame to carry out the necessary direct confrontations

Step 12 – Having had a slap-upside-the-head awakening as the result of these steps, we will carry this message to others afflicted with these people, and practice these principles in all our affairs

Amen.

M-PAPy has a nice ring to it. Pass the coffee and donuts.