Office Mate
I share an office with a woman in her late 50’s. She has two daughters, a few years younger than me. She has been with her husband since she was 13. She used to go home at lunch time to vacuum her house. Whether she says so or not, she has a lot of judgment about people who are not as ‘clean’ as her, or who are not as obsessive about housework. She likes to insert herself in any conversation or situation that has anything to do with people having babies. She talks a LOT about her past, and raising her kids. She misses being useful and needed. Though, her daughters are both VERY needy. The older one has three children. She married a guy who now has taken a job in VA while she stayed in Maine. She’s moved in with her parents, with her three children. She calls her mother at work to ask what to dress the kids in, “do you think they need coats today?” Its absurd.
Anyway, the HR guy at work often teases me about being ‘rough around the edges’, and he and my office mate had a good laugh last week at the idea of me having to be a nice flight attendant. When someone needs to get fired, or disciplined he jokes that he bets I wish I could do it. (I usually do). The other people in the office think its fun to tell the new hires that I’m not someone to get on the bad side of…That I’ll holler at them. While I don’t holler at people, other than my kids on occasion, I normally don’t mind being labeled as someone that doesn’t put up with shit.
However, today, office mate seems to just be being mean. While I was working on payroll she puts a card on my desk in front of me and tells me I need to sign it. The front says “Congratulations!” I hate signing cards for people I hardly know. I said ‘ugh, yes congratulations on getting knocked up, and giving birth.’
She said, “You’re cranky! If you got more sex, you’d be less cranky.”
I said, “Seriously?” She turned all red and left the office.
Later the HR guy came in and was joking about something with me, then office mate starts in at me with, “You’re not always right, you know!” and “you exaggerate, all the time!”
(Pot, kettle, what?) Then she told me that I am pushy and bossy…not all the time, but most of the time! She’s laughing like this is funny. I clarified, telling her that I am direct. Bossy and pushy suggests I’m trying to sway them into doing something. I am rarely bossy or pushy, simply because I generally don’t give a shit what people do or don’t do, as long as it doesn’t make my job harder. I also said I wasn’t sure if she was trying to offend me or not, but I really don’t have any problem with how I am.
I’m not sure why she’s being so mean to me today. I guess spending 5 years working right next to someone every damn day, I would hope that she’d learn to talk to me in normal way, instead of insulting me, and pretending its funny when she’s really thinks I’m an awful person.
Its only 1pm. I have 3 hours left in this day. I suppose punching her in the face isn’t good for my job security.
Looking Forward 