Only starting to learn: Don't take people at their word of feel empathy for them in the workplace.

I've always been a trusting sort of person who is also generally empathetic -- I'm good at putting myself in someone else's shoes or seeing things from their point of view. Finally, now that I'm in later middle-age, I'm seeing how that generally kind of fucked me over over the years.

Now I see the error of my ways and that the best philosophy is to not take people (especially managers and other supervisor types) at their word or feel empathy for them.

Given the chance, they will fuck you over in a heartbeat so if your manager makes even a simple mistake that "normal" you might forgive, don't. Make sure that it is documented.

And, especially if it's a "simple mistake" they make that you would normally think "oh no big deal, it really doesn't effect anything" but it also happens to "break policy" be sure to report it. Because, you sure as shit know that they would report you for the slightest thing.