Co-Workers
or Cow-Orkers or Co-Irkers?
Jan-Jun
2003 Archive
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2003 Archive
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Jul-Dec
2004 Archive
Well, after spending hours reading your site, I felt compelled to
write about an incident that happened at my job. Not a big deal, but the lack of
etiquette all around was horrible.
My company has a few large pot-luck lunches throughout the
year. The Accounting & Payroll departments do all the cooking and then we
(accounting & payroll) meet with the exec's in their main board room to eat.
Now these exec's, who make a ton of money, in no way contribute to these
lunches. They show up, eat, and then are gone, with nary a "thank you"
or a helping hand to assist with the clean up. In addition, they do not even
invite their own receptionist (who I'll call "Cindy") to participate,
forcing her to endure our partying two feet from her office. After the last
party, I felt bad for "Cindy", as when I was leaving I noticed her
eating a pretty bare turkey sandwich.
Now, because my boss and other exec's attend these
"functions", I try to make something really good. As I consider myself
a pretty good chef, I slaved the day before to make a huge tiramisu. Now, anyone
who has made a tiramisu knows, it costs upwards of $30-$45 to make one when you
factor in the cheese, wine, and liquor, and you must work hard to ensure they're
not soggy and gross. Anyway, I had about 1/2 of the cake left as there were many
desserts brought that day, and I asked "Cindy" if she would like a
piece of cake. She replied she would love some so I let her cut a large slice.
Later that day, I see "Cindy" and she says the cake was so good she
wanted the recipe. I said ok, even though I really don't like to give out my
recipes.
During the next week, I was out sick and just didn't have time
to type up the recipe. When I retuned to work, "Cindy" stops me in the
hall to enquire about "her" recipe. I told her I hadn't forgotten but
just hadn't had time. She replied, in a tone conveying her great annoyance, that
it was ok, but I needed to hurry up. Ignoring *my* annoyance, I told her I would
get it to her ASAP. The next day, I typed the recipe and hand delivered it to
her office. Her reply? "Hmph, well, it's about time". I just stared
for a second then walked away, trying not to turn back and rip the damn thing
out of her hands. Oh, and what happened to the rest of the cake? When I returned
to my department the day of the party, I asked the two people who hadn't gone if
they'd like a piece. They proceeded to split the rest of the cake between
themselves to "take home to their husbands", leaving me with nothing
to bring home to my family. Sigh…
Co-workers0113-05
Several months ago, I started a new job in the food
service industry. I've worked as a cook for 22 years in every kind of
restaurant from roadside diners to five star showcases. I'm a cook as
opposed to a chef, but I try to be the best I can be at my job. I
got along famously with every one of my new co-workers but for one - a young man
named, well, I'll call him Grody. He was 20 years old and a real pickle
and vinegar type - whatever you had done or could do, he did it first, better,
faster, and more often. All right, I've worked with these type before.
Generally, if you just let them do everything they think they want to, they burn
out rather quickly, either quitting and moving on or calming down and actually
mellowing into a good cook. Grody, on the other hand:
Burned himself grabbing a pan away from me while I was taking it to the sink -
after I'd said "Hot!" he still pulled it out of my hand saying "I
don't have time to wait to get it back." There are 6 other pans
exactly the same size hanging on the rack. Hurt his back wrestling a
box of eggs out of my arms - then dropping it on the floor. Yay, an entire
case (12 flats of 36 eggs each) shattered because "She can't carry that
much." Though I can haul an 85 pound trash can out to the dumpster
without his 'help'.
But the capper that sent me looking for another job (and
finding one at a pay raise and better hours): I was hanging tickets on the
'rack'. When working a wheel by yourself, there is no hard and fast rule
about whether they go from right to left or left to right. Most people
hang them left to right, because they're right handed. I hang right to
left because I'm a lefty. He stomps up, gets in my way trying to read the
tickets, then pulls them down and begins rearranging them because "they're
backwards". "Nobody reads right to left unless they're
reading Chinese," he tells me. "Or Hebrew," I tell him through
gritted teeth. "Well, who cares? Hitler killed all the f******
Jews anyway." I walked off the line, punched out and left. I'm
Jewish.
Co-workers0202-05
I work for a computer consulting firm, and a new project was
in the works (traveling to their client's sites all over the country upgrading
their computers).
During the first meeting that included all people selected for
the project, one of my coworkers (who obviously lacks some social skills) asks a
question about travel time (if travel hours would count toward overtime). Our
project manager told him no, as it's against company policy and possibly
employment law. So he attempted to clarify the question to better understand it.
He phrased his question like this: "Okay, so we'll get only for travel
time, and not time and a half?"
Unfortunately, the rate he quoted was higher than what some of
the other equally qualified people had negotiated. When the meeting is over, our
project manager was accosted by several people, with questions about why this
person was making more than them.
Needless to say, the coworker was fired.
I've worked several jobs, some of which had agreements not to
disclose salary information written into the contract. One particular employer
fired 5 people (the entire night shift) because one person discovered that we
had access to payroll data, didn't report it to upper management, and decided to
look up the salary of our boss, our coworkers, etc. Since no one on the night
shift told management, and the "hacker" had shared the information
with them, they were all fired.
Why do people seem to think discussing their pay rate is
perfectly acceptable and polite? It never is, even if it's not an offense that
results in immediate termination under your contract. All it can do is cause
jealousy, which interferes with their work.
Co-workers0301-05
This story is about a male co-worker whom I'll call
Stan. Stan is a big, soft-spoken, shy man. When he first
started working at the ABC Company, he was quite overweight. He decided to do
something about it, and he joined Weight Watchers. "Good for
him," I thought. I've battled a weight problem all my life, and I
know how tough it is. Weight Watchers did the trick for him - he lost
quite a bit of weight. I know, because he gave me frequent updates on his
progress. I wasn't all that interested, to be honest, but I could
understand that he was proud of his achievement and wanted to share.
I recently started putting a jar of candy on my desk - M&Ms, that sort of
thing. The idea is that anyone can help him/herself. Stan turned
into my biggest "customer", which surprised me somewhat - he'd worked
so hard to lose the weight, and yet here he was stuffing himself with
candy. After about a month, he suddenly announced to me that he
wasn't going to eat my candy anymore, because he was putting weight back on.
Fair enough. "It's not your fault," he assured me.
"It's me. Please don't take it personally." I already knew
it wasn't my fault, and I wasn't taking it personally, but I accepted his
comments with good grace and wished him luck. Well, two days later
he was back helping himself to the candy. Then, a few days after that, he
gave me the "I'm giving up candy, it's not your fault, don't take it
personally" speech again.
Lather, rinse, repeat at least five more times over the next
few weeks. By this point, I was getting frustrated
and irritated with Stan. We'd never been friends, but his constant yo-yo
dieting and unnecessary assurances of how it wasn't my fault were really getting
on my nerves. Lent arrived, and a friend of mine decided to
give up alcohol for the duration. I'm not Catholic, and I've never
observed Lent, but I decided to do something similar. My big weakness is
potato chips, so I decided to give those up. I have a whiteboard at
my desk, and after ten chip-less days I proudly wrote "CHIP-FREE FOR 10
DAYS!" on it. Stan came by to get some candy (surprise!)
and saw my whiteboard. Smirking, he pointed at it and said "We'll
see." Stung, I said "It's been ten days. That's pretty
good for me." Shaking his head, he repeated "We'll see" and
walked off, munching his candy. I was furious. Who was he to
tell me I couldn't give up chips for Lent when he was incapable of giving up
candy for more than two days? (Incidentally, it's been four weeks, and I'm
still chip-free. So there, Stan!)
Co-workers0311-05
I work in a DoD test facility running the computer operations.
A very simple but repetitive job, and there are only 3 of us in this work
center. One of my co-workers is the most difficult person I’ve ever
worked with; I’ll call him “B.” He’s been there 2 years longer
than me, 7 years with the job altogether. “B’s” major problem is
he’s hypersensitive. He constantly makes careless mistakes, which we
have to correct, and then he gets all bent out of shape when we tell him about
it. Acts as if it’s not his fault. Then, he gets extremely petty
and splits hairs constantly about every little thing—I’m assuming it’s his
way of gaining a little bit of power. And either way, you can never win
with the guy. If I find something to do, “B” hovers over me and wants
to know what I’m doing. If “B” is tasked with something, he gets all
huffy and expects everyone to help him. “B”
constantly complains that nobody shares information with him, nobody trains him.
Well, why should we? Everything you say to him goes in one ear and out the
other…doesn’t make the effort to learn or retain the information…it’s
like he expects to be spoon fed and have his hand held the rest of his life.
And on top of that, he’s supposedly devoutly religious, but you’d never know
if by his actions. “B” argues on the phone with his wife loudly, he is
rude, gets offended easily, is a hypocrite, is jealous of everyone around him,
and he is paranoid of everything.
Co-workers0407-05
We all know that some people are still saps for every email
scam that comes along, but this was my favorite example of that. I worked in an
office with 500 people. The IT department and the management made it clear that
employees were not to send mass forwards of emails to the people at the office
and waste everyone's time. (A joke sent to a couple of friends wasn't frowned
on; you just had to use your discretion.) One day, one of the secretaries sent
out that email scam that says "If you forward this message, Bill Gates will
send you a nickel for every email address you send it to." To every person
in the firm, all the way up the chairman. But this was the kicker: she sent it
by using the company's internal "All Firm" email address. So not only
was she exposed as being stupid enough to believe one of the oldest scams in
internet history in front of the entire firm, even if the scam HAD been true,
her stupidity meant she would have received...one nickel, for the one firm email
address she sent the message to.
Co-workers0407-05
During my college years of the late 80s - early 90s, I worked
as an unarmed security guard, also known as a "rent-a-cop". We
worked for a company which in turn would provide our services to different
businesses. Basically, we're an insurance write-off. During the day,
I might have basic receptionist duties. During swing or grave shifts, my
job was to walk around once an hour, note that the walls aren't currently
aflame, and make another trip on the next hour to ensure they still haven't
caught fire yet. It was the perfect student job, because you had plenty of
time (and even permission) to do homework on shift, and I preferred swing
because it matched my sleep and class schedules.
At one time, I was assigned the role of shift supervisor.
Of course, the following event had to happen on my first day....
The company I worked at was one that had five or six different
buildings to monitor, so there would be a guard assigned to each one, and every
hour they'd call in to me for their check-ins. One guard was brand new.
Not only was it his first day on the job, but it was his first day as a security
guard, period. And so after he checked in, I took a short walk to his building
to make sure he was doing all right. When I got there, I noticed a bass
line coming through the wall of the reception area, and my new partner looked a
bit ill at ease. Listening to music on the swing shift was perfectly fine,
since you're usually alone anyway, but this sure wasn't coming from his radio.
Curious, I asked him what was going on, and he said some of the employees were
having a party in one of the electronics labs, and that they claimed to have
permission. Warning sirens went off in my head: for obvious reasons there
was no eating or drinking allowed in any of said labs.
As I led my new partner closer to the suspect lab, I also
heard some guys laughing. As we opened the door to the lab, the music was
pretty loud (though not deafening), and in said lab we find four guys. All
these men are pretty big compared to me (a well-proportioned size 14, but only
5'3") and my partner (who may have been about 6' tall, but was thin as a
rail). All of them are also drinking beer, and from the empties on the
counter it looks like they've gone through two each by now. No wonder my
partner was so worried. I'm a little concerned, too; security guards have
no temporal powers whatsoever, no matter what they tell you. If things
went bad, we would have to call for the real police like any other citizen, and
we'd be easy to overpower.
But the flushed foursome are in a good mood, they aren't
obviously drunk yet, and as a relatively small woman I don't pose a threat to
them, so I figure I might be able to charm our way out of this. All
smiles, I come in, say hi, ask if they have permission to have open containers
of liquid in the lab. Why, of course they do! From the VP, no
less! (Never mind that the chances of them getting permission from the
company's Vice President to have a beer party in an electronics lab after hours
are roughly equivalent to the chances of pigs flying out my rectal orifice.)
But, hey, it's great that they have such a close relationship
with the VP. All I have to do is see the written permission, and
everything's fine. Oh, dear, you don't have written permission? Gee,
guys, I'm afraid that if you don't have something written, my boss won't accept
it, and I'm really sorry, but I could lose my job over this.... My pleas
for their aid are acceptable, they agree to clean things up and go, everyone
saves face, and my partner and I go about with rounds for the rest of the
building.
We come back to the lab about 10 minutes later. Boom box
is gone, men are gone, place is cleaned up, all evidence scrubbed. Or is
it? Witness:
1) Two bottles of beer in the waste basket. 2)
Four fuzzy B+W Polaroids of themselves on the table, taken with one of the
cameras in the lab. One of the guys in his photo was even holding up his
own employee badge. I. KID. YOU. NOT.
Silently thanking God for the fact these guys were peaceful,
if dumb as posts, I take the evidence back, write my Daily Action Report (the
ubiquitous DAR), and call my supervisor to let him know where the evidence will
be. I stapled the photos and the twice-wrapped bottles of beer to the DAR
as best I could, as I had the feeling the evidence was going to be very
important. I listed the incident as kind of a "non-issue".
Everyone was friendly, no one was confrontational, no damage was done, etc.
Fast forward a couple days. I'm coming in to work after
my scheduled day off, taking over from my supervisor (who has the shift before
me). He fills me in on what happened the day after my report. First
thing in the morning the fabulous foursome went to their manager. They
complained bitterly that I was abusive, aggressive, and nasty. I threw my
weight around. They were never in the lab, they were just doing their work in
their cubes, and I wouldn't let them finish. All four of them had the same
stories and bad mouthed me to no end (must've taken them all night to make sure
their stories meshed so well). Basically, to save their butts they were
doing a pre-emptive strike on my credibility, attempting to get me fired (or at
least reassigned).
Then their manager not only produced my DAR, but the two
bottles of beer and four (blurry, but still recognizable) B+W Polaroids that
they so helpfully left behind. Said manager's response was "do it
again and you're fired". Apparently, the four were notorious for this
kind of behavior, and though they had rehearsed their story to perfection for a
united, cohesive front, the physical evidence was a bit much for them to BS
their way out of.
I have no idea if they stayed at that company very long after
that: working swing means not seeing regular employees very much. But if
this kind of behavior is any indication, I have the feeling they met a grizzly
downsized fate once the Dot Com bubble burst....
Co-workers0525-05
Oh the joys of immature co-workers. I must first start
this story with a little background on myself. Most importantly being that
I have severely painful back condition. There are just some days that I
can't move, can't sit up, can't do anything, and must stay home from work.
Recently, I went through one such spell. I missed three days of work.
I spent those three days plus the following weekend in utter pain and agony.
Sadly, one of the days that I missed, I had promised to cover the front desk phones
for our office receptionist for her afternoon off. I do this quite
frequently, and without complaint, as I had her position once and know how
hard it is to find coverage. But, as I said, I was out of the office due
to my condition. Now, the whole office was already aware of my problem, they
could hardly miss it considering I walk with a severe limp about 50% of the
time. In my absence, the receptionist asked another co-worker, who holds
the same position as myself, to cover her. Okay, let us refresh. I
am gone for 3 days, and my counterpart is now doing the work of two during one
of our busiest seasons. No, terribly sorry, she could not cover the
phones, our boss would not allow it. When I came back from work, I noticed
the rather chilly reception I received, but thought nothing of it, chalking it to
the receptionist having a bad day. We were on extremely friendly terms, so
I wasn't worried. But the next day I found out that the receptionist is
not talking to me, or my counterpart because we didn't cover the phones.
Unbelievable! Some people can be so childish. And yet, she still
expects me to cover the phones for her in the future. Yes, big incentive
to help her out when she snubs me because of an illness.
Co-workers0621-05
I spent 10 years working at a state university in a small
office. I was the only "clerical" person in our office, as I was the
department secretary.
A new software system was instituted to handle our payroll and
accounting systems, and all of the clerical staff spent many hours in training
learning how to use it. My supervisor, "M," was only to attend one
short afternoon course on the payroll system, as it was directly against
university policy to have employees enter their own timesheets. M decided she
was too busy to attend the course, so I had no choice but to enter my own
timesheet into the system. I was in a "damned if you do, damned if you
don't" situation because I knew if I ratted M out to our Personnel office
she would become angry and take it out on me; if I didn't, I knew somehow this
would all come back to bite me in the butt.
And just that happened. One afternoon I was called into her
office with another supervisor, "S," and accused of defrauding and
stealing from the university because I had not entered in some vacation time I
had taken. M said she didn't have time to be meeting with me over something like
this and told me how much of an imposition this whole situation was to her. I
was yelled at and basically called a liar. Crying and scared for my job, I told
them both that if I had made a mistake that it was an honest one. I had bitten
my fingernails to the nubs and noticed they were bleeding. Our meeting was
dismissed and I was sent back to my desk, visibly shaken, to finish a project
I'd been working on.
Later in the day the director of the department,
"B," came out to tell me that upon further investigation (no doubt to
see if they had grounds to fire me) they had uncovered a mistake in my vacation
balance and found out that it was Payroll's error. I never received an apology
from either of the two supervisors in the meeting; instead the director told me
that from that point on that M would stand over my shoulder and observe me as I
entered my own time. (She never did attend the training to enter timesheets
herself.)
That incident, along with many others and the fact that 1/3 of
the 24 employees in the department are related to each other, caused me to leave
after 10 years. I'll never work a government job again.
Co-workers0630-05
This event happened over 10 years ago but I still have to pick
my jaw off the floor every time I think about.
Let's set up the story first: The year was 1994. I was 21
years old and slaving away at a fast food place. Being a fast food place, we got
our fair share of goofball teenage workers. Anyways, that particular day
happened to be a holiday (I can't remember which one) and no school for the
teenagers. And that day we had two people call in sick and NO ONE would come in
to cover their shifts. That left us a grand total of FOUR people to cover the
lunch rush--Two people for the front registers, one for the grill and another
for the drive thru. We got creamed!! But somehow we made it through.
Cut to about 1:30 or 2pm, we are cleaning up from the
lunchtime rush when "Mike" comes waltzing in. "Mike" is one
of our teenage workers. He usually works nights so I didn't really see him all
that often. But "Mike" is a bit on the scuzzy side--the kind of guy
who thinks underage drinking and smoking pot is "so cool". He also
brought an entourage of his equally scuzzy friends. "Mike" coming in
when he 'couldn't' come in to cover a shift when we really needed help was
bad enough, but what happened next was truly astonishing. "Mike"
asked me (I was 21) and the shift manager on duty (also 21) to leave and go get
him and his friends (all underage) some beer!!! Unbelievable! Like we were just
going to drop everything and break the law for him while we were on the clock!
The manager told "Mike" he could clock in and help or get the hell
out. "Mike" didn't work there much longer.
Co-workers0422-05
To make a very long story shorter, I will give you a brief
overview of Edda, our employee from Hell. Edda is a 35 year old single woman who
has the biggest chip on her shoulder. After being laid off from her last job,
and collecting unemployment for a year, she applied for a receptionist position
at my company. At first I was hesitant to hire her, as her appearance was a
cross between trailer trash and 80's/90's punk rocker, and had hair like Edward
Scissorhands. She appeared to be somewhat congenial, as a last resort we hired
her as she appeared to be the better of the only 2 candidates. Little did we
know?.
Over time we came to learn that she was probably the most
bitter, selfish, clueless person I have ever met. She is a self proclaimed
Christian but fails miserably to exude that. Rather she blames and judges
everyone and everything around her. At 35, she has stated that she is mad at God
for allowing her to still be single!!! She refuses to accept more responsibility
and duties in her position (which could offer her more money), and then
complains that she doesn't make enough money, yet she also leaves early often
and calls in "sick" about 3 times a month, arrives late and leaves
early. She is rude to other employees and customers, and has never accepted that
when she is called on it. She thinks there is a conspiracy here as well, as she
thinks that people steal files and paperwork of her desk. She will rant and rave
and blame, and point fingers and then when she finds them (where she left them)
she just goes on about her day with no apologies for yelling accusing others.
She makes vendors and clients uncomfortable by asking them out and to go do
stuff together after work. If you ask her a questions about something that she
doesn't really care about, she says "I don't know I never saw that" or
" I have no idea, that wasn't my job." She lets off exasperated sighs
every 5 minutes, and her job is the least stressful here. She's merely a
secretary.
But the situation that takes the cake is this: One day Edda
arrived late because her curling iron broke. She was complaining about it all
day. I told her that I thought I had an extra one she could use, and offered it
to her. I told her I would bring it the next day. That evening a family member
of mine passed away. Edda called me and left a voicemail stating ?I need you to
bring the curling iron tomorrow?, that night also. I came to work the next day
just to get a few things, and then would be returning to my family to assist in
funeral preparations. Being that I was so flustered and had other things on my
mind, I forgot to bring the curling iron. As soon as walked into the office the
next day, she bombarded me and asked me about the curling iron. I apologetically
said I had forgotten it. She huffed and puffed and said in a foul manner ?I
really needed you to bring curling iron, today, I can't do my hair with out it.?
I had to leave then to get to my family. She thought I was
coming back and called me about 1 hour later and said ?Can you bring the curling
iron when you come back?? I told her no because I wasn't coming back I was going
to plan a funeral. She hung up on me. She then started complaining to our
co-workers that I was a flake, and if someone says they are going to do someone
a favor then they have to do it. She continued to complain about this for the
next 2 days while I was out. Even though my co-workers tried to explain that I
was just overwhelmed with the funeral and forgot. But Edda insisted that I was
rude and inconsiderate as she really needed the curling iron. She even went as
far as going to a local store and complaining to my neighbor that I was a flake,
and selfish.
That may seem like enough show that she has no etiquette or
professionalism. But it gets better. When I returned from being off for 2 days,
she did not speak to me. I would ask her questions and she would only shrug or
say yes or no. I eventually had to remind her that I was her boss and she needed
to be responsive to me. When I asked my co-workers what the deal was they told
me about how she complained every hour about the curling iron. Later that month,
she was up for an evaluation. As usual I stated that she needed to improve her
very negative attitude along with several other areas she needed to work on. I
also stated that it wouldn't hurt her to be friendlier in the office. She then
stated ?I have personal issues with you that make me unable to be nice.?
Wouldn't you know it, she was talking about what we now refer to as ?the curling
iron incident?
Needless to say she has been denied a raise during her last 2
evaluations for failure to improve her awful, selfish, begrudging attitude. But
she continues to blame everyone else but herself.
Co-workers0518-05
At my office, the receptionist, “BJ,” is incredibly rude.
I should have learned this early on, but after 4 years, she still manages to
shock me with her rudeness. When I had been working there for about 6 months,
she discovered that I was living with, but not yet married to, Mason (we are now
married). We were outside after lunch, with several other people and she asked
me, totally off the subject, “Doesn’t your mother mind you being shacked
up?” Later I find out that she is having an affair with a married man. I wish
I was rude enough to ask her if her lover’s wife minds…
Co-workers0117-05
I was working at a large corporation on the east coast
and I was selected for a special project. My boss had 12 people under her
control, eight "regular" workers and four of us working on the special
project. The boss was often very vocal about how special and better we four were
in comparison to the regular workers. I was a late comer to the project,
replacing someone who was now one of the lesser regular workers. Two of my
fellow project workers, Mary and Karen, were both very very nasty to me. They
made it very clear that I was there on their sufferance and that they could get
me fired. Karen in particular made it very clear that she was our boss's friend
and the project leader's friend and she was dating a man who was also highly
placed in the company. So this was awkward to begin with, and not helped by the
fact that these two really enjoyed flaunting the project privileges in the faces
of the regular workers. (The boss seemed to either ignore or subtly encourage
this behavior.)
Three months down the road, Karen announces that she is
pregnant by her boyfriend. The boyfriend has been moved to a different area as
their relationship can no longer be ignored. Then less than a week later, Mary
also announces that she is pregnant. Karen immediately begins suggesting that
Mary got pregnant to "one up" her. I ask Karen, already appalled that
she has publicly announced that not only is she dating a higher up (not
expressly forbidden since he wasn't her direct supervisor but still pretty
gauche) but that she is pregnant out of wedlock (yeah, not my business except
that she keeps talking about it to me, someone she doesn't even like) if she and
Harvey will be getting married before the baby is born. Her reply? No because
there's not enough time to do the wedding the way she wants it done -
which is expensive and in a church, with her in a pricey white gown and
everything done in pink her favorite color, all of which Harvey will be paying
for because of his great job. Whatever. Not my business, and I don't know
Harvey well enough to warn him off. I don't approve but hey, we're not friends
and she's not likely to change. So for months I am listening to the
two of them go on and on about the babies they will be birthing, picking up
their work and listening to the endless trials of pregnancy. Mary has a hard
time, complete with throwing up at her desk. The boss is constantly chitchatting
with them over the babies. I don't want kids and have no interest in the whole
business but I try to ignore it. Soon, along with all the other problems, the
two of them are complaining to the boss that I am not being supportive of them.
I point out to the boss that I have a strong moral objection to Karen having a
baby with a work superior and not even thinking about getting married but have
chosen to keep silent on that rather than air my opinion of unwed mothers
whoring around at work. I also point out any number of work issues that have
been dumped on me as I am not pregnant, and that Karen and Mary are both often
verbally abusive. The subject is dropped.
Then the baby showers start. First off, the whole group,
including the regular workers who are not as good as Karen and Mary, are told
that they will all be attending by our boss. The first one is for Karen. Not
only is everyone solicited for money for the group gifts, I am told that as part
of the project, I should also bring a separate gift. This is also an "at
work" shower. The regular team is brought in for a fifteen minute break
where they get a piece of cake and the pleasure of watching Karen open gifts
that they bought. Did I mention that Karen has loudly and repeatedly spoken on
how these people were not on her level? And that Karen was making significantly
more money than these people who were required to shell out for gifts for
someone they don't like? I am sent back to work after my gift is opened
and the shower, with the boss and Karen and a well-wisher from of different dept
goes on for two hours as they chitchat for the rest of the day.
Forward two months to Mary's shower. Not only is this also a
required shower, but now we have added four new people to the project who
haven't even met Mary since she was put on bed rest for the duration of the
pregnancy. So now everyone has to chip in "as much as you did for Karen, to
make it fair", the four new people are also strongly advised to bring
additional gifts, and since it is taking place during work hours, only the
project people can go. A week later, I am dropped from the project
because of all of the petty complaints made against me (The work was never an
issue but the boss felt I didn't relate well to the group). I have yet to receive
a thank you note from either woman and I have discovered that no one has received
one. And that more people have been deemed unable to relate well to the group.
Thank god I don't work there anymore.
Co-workers0605-05
Page Last Updated May 18, 2007
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