Yah maybe the word phoney is a bit harsh… but I don’t really know what else to do use? If it is not possible to be like better than somebody else, then why act like it? And its those people that make fun of others and act like they are better than others, they tend to be more gossipy in my experience. I see it a lot with colleagues in my office that are mothers. They are constantly criticizing other peoples ways of parenting. However they are not like that when the person is around to stand up for themselves. it’s pretty unfair in my opinion because to anybody that is listening, they receive a biased opinion of a person that may not even be true. Which is,again, just my personal experience. I definitely distance myself from those people because your right, who knows what they could be saying about me. Its more about the spreading of hate and negativity that bothers me. Everything breeds in kind. Negativity breeds negativity unless you make a conscious effort to not let it bother you and move on to be the better person. Somedays are more challenging than others though. Especially when you work with them and generally required to spend the bulk of your week with these people. Head down I suppose and chin up I suppose haha. But I also admit that I probably care way to much because I have a hard time putting up boundaries when it comes to energy. Especially negative. Its almost a need to fix it before it gets worse and spreads even more.