Financial troubles solving work dispute

What happens in the context of underground exploration doesn't stay in the context of underground exploration. Or maybe I should just say: when human relationships break down, they break down. It tends not to be situation dependent.

When in 2019 I spoke out against the glorification of sexual assault on a mine exploration trip, the person who actively tried to shut me up was a colleague. He was really keen for that sort of behaviour to remain unchallenged. At least if it came from his chums. And when he found out it was difficult to shut me up, he took me off the email list that is used for disseminating information about the underground trips.

Later he sent me an email, from his work email address to mine, accusing me of god knows what, saying he was not willing to talk about this, and expressing the wish to remain friends. I mailed him back that he could have at most 2 out of 3. If you hurl such vitriol at me and won't discuss it in person, like an adult, you will not be friends. He made his choice; he did not want to talk about it. So we were not friends. I have later encouraged him again to change his course and choose dialogue, but he ignored that.

It turns out we are both quite stubborn! He clearly really doesn't want to discuss the accusations he levelled at me, nor why he took me off the email list without a word. And I am not going to declare peace if he's not willing to do that. So we had a bit of a cold war situation going on.

This did affect our work, obviously; the low point was that he stood me up when he was assigned to me as a first aider. I don't believe that was a coincidence; he doesn't have a reputation for standing anybody else up (unless they were associated with me). 

I had been wondering if reminding him again that peace negotiations were still possible, but that nothing will change without them, would do any good, when reality overtook me. He has taken voluntary redundancy. So he's going! I'm sure that will be inconvenient for people; we obviously have one member of support staff fewer that can come on field trips as a first aider. He sometimes takes nice pics of fieldworks of graduations. And he does the layout of our periodical. And I'm sure he does other useful things that will now have to be picked up by other people. But for me it's good; I don't have to encounter him anymore, and I don't have to worry about being stood up if he gets assigned to my trips. (I am not worried about anybody else standing me up.) 

I suppose the term "this too shall pass" applies here! Even if two sides of a conflict won't yield, time will intervene and render said conflict irrelevant. Maybe these are good times to hold on to that thought…