As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a sluggard to those who send him (Proverbs 10:26).

I once worked with someone who had to be one of the most passive-aggressive workers the world has ever known.  Sometimes I even had the misfortune of being assigned to manage him in a particular task.  It was painful.  A task would be assigned, reluctant assent would be given, and then the passive-aggression would begin.  Comments would be whispered under the breath, the task would be endlessly delayed by virtue of jaunts down every conceivable rabbit trail, or the strategy could be as simple as deliberate inactivity.  But whenever questioned about the lack of follow-through on the assigned task, he would begin to gripe and moan and complain about how it was such an unfair assignment to begin with.  Even the simplest of tasks could become the bloodiest of battle-fields.  Yes, it was a kind of rebellion; but even more than rebellion, it was a specialized kind of malicious laziness designed to frustrate the one who sent him off on the assignment.

Passive-aggressive behavior is one of my personal pet peeves.  I can't really think of anyone who likes being treated that way -- surface-level apathy undergirded by a brooding desire to do everything possible (apart from direct confrontation) to sabotage the stated goals -- but I, personally, find it especially maddening.  It really does feel like a camp-fire in which I can never get up-wind and the smoke is constantly following me, caustic to my nose, my throat, and particularly my eyes.  It really does feel like my teeth are being disintegrated, enamel slowly dissolved by acidic agents to the point at which sensitivity is so keen that any stimulus sends lightning bolts coursing throughout my body, to the tips of my fingers and toes.  This is just what passive-aggressive behavior, that particularly insidious form of laziness, does to me.  I'd much prefer open confrontation to concealed antagonism.  I'd rather duel at high noon than pretend to be friends while having the relationship consistently undermined by apathy, (subconscious) scheming, and inactivity.

Often, when I read about the "sluggard" mentioned throughout the Proverbs, I think of "the world's most passive-aggressive worker" -- and I freshly realize how accurate the Proverbs can be:  As vinegar to the teeth and smoke to the eyes, so is a sluggard to those who send him.  Passive-aggressive behavior is one of the most advanced techniques of the sluggard.  More concentrated vinegar, more acrid smoke.  And I, for one, don't want to have anything to do with any of it, if I can help it.