Here's the back story. I've been working at this plant for 5.5 years, I quickly moved up to my current skilled labor position and have been there for 5 years now. The pay is pretty good, it's a pretty chill job for the most part, but the guy I work with makes my life unbearable. Me and him have the same position, same job title, he's not my manager or boss, in no way is he over me at all. The only thing he has on me is his seniority since he's been at this company for 15 years now.
He's had several different positions in this company, including supervisor which he got fired demoted from because of the narcissist he is. Nothing I ever do is good enough in his eyes, I don't have the freedom to be creative in my work because it's his way or nothing, he's always right and never wrong. All the mistakes he makes somehow are my fault. I can never solve a problem because he thinks he always has the right solution, and then when I don't solve a problem it's like the end of the world, when he's the reason I don't even try because it will be wrong anyway. He constantly talks down to people, has a holier than thou attitude, even talks down to our department manager. If anyone knew how he talks about our own boss their heads would spin, however nothing ever gets done about it. He expects everyone to do everything his way and expects me to read his mind on what he wants done, and if I get it wrong he berates me. He's been this way for the whole 5 years, and it makes my work life miserable. I dread going in to work every day, I even just recently got shingles at the age of 32 from all the stress of dealing with him. Our boss is a pushover so I can't go to him about it even though he knows exactly what this guy is like.
The only reason I'm still working here is because there's not many jobs in my area doing what I do and it provides a comfortable life for me and my son, but man I'm sick of dreading going to work. On days he has off I actually love my job, I can work the way I wanna work without being yelled at or doing things the wrong way even though it's not the wrong way. I just don't know what to do at this point.