kick someone when they're down (meaning)

You get to work ahead of time one day and find a coworker sitting at the back of a dark room. You approach him and try to find out what is the source of that weird behavior. He ends up breaking down in front of you and confessing to be in a very low place right now for being rejected by his long-term girlfriend. You manage to calm him down for a moment before everybody else showed up for the first hours of the days work, but he remains silent and miserable for the rest of the day.

By the end of that day, when your coworker thinks there is nothing that could make it worse he has a very unfortunate surprise. His boss stops by his table and leaves another extra load of paperwork to work through and still gives him a scolding for missing a deadline. Yes, he was so involved in his own misery with his ex girlfriend he forgot completely about a very important project. You understand his boss was just doing his job, but also very inconsiderate of him not to have noticed how mournful and dismal he was. No need to kick him when he is already down.

When you kick someone when they are already down, it means you criticize, exploit, insult, or otherwise treat badly someone who has already suffered a setback or is in a vulnerable position.

That is all for now. Talk to you next time!