Shoot the Wall (A.K.A. The Rant Thread)

[Artemis]

Of course not, I'm here to make us some coffee!

 

 

...And then use your balcony.

 

 

[Pseudonym]

Ah good... that's good. It's not drugged again is it?

[Artemis]

No never...

 

 

 

[Pseudonym]

Ah well, I haven't got anything to do for four days, I'll risk it. 

 

 

[Pseudonym]

Meanwhile, psychologically...

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Don't worry, it won't be. I checked the weather forecast, more rain. You just live down the street, right?

Yes, down the street and across the pond where we have snow and sub-zero Fahrenheit temperatures. ;)

 

Tomorrow is not going to be fun. I have a funeral 2 hours away and the high is going to be -7F :/

[Artemis]

Funeral?

 

 

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Funeral?

Yep. A Uni friend's mom passed on Tuesday so driving the 2 hours south of the Twin Cities to go to the funeral.

[Artemis]

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that.  It's nice that you can be there for them.  Have a safe drive, stay warm!

 

 

[Pseudonym]

I wish beanbags were easier to get up from. 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Oh, heavens, yes!  Otherwise they're wonderful.  Maybe put them in a framework like a "papa-san" chair?

[SherlockedCAMPer]

Aw, I'm sorry to hear that. It's nice that you can be there for them. Have a safe drive, stay warm!

It was good. Probably the shortest funeral I've been to ever and the graveside lasted all of 3-5 minutes. With the windchill advisory we had today, that's still in place for another approximately 13.5 hours, I'm glad it wasn't drawn out. I also got to catch up with another uni classmate who happens to live down that way.

[Pseudonym]

Oh, heavens, yes!  Otherwise they're wonderful.  Maybe put them in a framework like a "papa-san" chair?

 

Huh, I'd never heard of a papasan chair. I inelegantly half crab walk, half roll away, and then stagger to my feet. Even getting on the thing isn't easy, since instead of a square it's one with a back so you have to reverse up and straddle it to sit in just the right place that there are beans in the back bit. It's comfy once you're in situ, though I always have a phobia a spider will run at me and I won't be able to get away in time. 

[Fantasy Lover]

*groans* last new year's eve was pretty insufferable with a three year old, now that same kid has invited a friend and I'm spending the evening in agony. Someone please rob the bank of England or steal the crown jewels so I don't have to deal with either of them.

[Arcadia]

I escaped my nephews by volunteering to wash the dishes. :d 

[Carol the Dabbler]

I assume it's a safe bet they didn't volunteer to help?

 

[Artemis]

So I said I was going to write a post about my work nemesis (actually not work in this case, but where I volunteer), but there's so much to say, I figured it was easier to just post something I've already written.  I wrote this years ago, back when I used to keep an online journal.

I only work with one guy at the library.  He's in his late 20's or early 30's, quite tall but on the slighter side build-wise, highly attractive face-wise, and he doesn't like me.  He reeeally doesn't like me.  There's this palpable animosity between us, and I have absolutely no idea where it comes from.  I wouldn't mind him, except that he very obviously can't stand me.

We met when I started again, first thing after arriving.  I went into the back room and he looked at me with an attitude like, "Are you serious?"  He said, "Are you a volunteer here?"  I told him I was and introduced myself.  He shook my hand reluctantly but avoided exchanging his name.  I went about my business, signing in and printing the request list and stuff, and after watching me for a few awkward minutes like he couldn't believe someone had let me back there, he said, "Well, you seem to know your way around pretty well."  I told him that I'd been an intern there in college.

And he didn't believe me!  He was all suspicious, asking me questions that he thought I wouldn't know the answers to, like he was trying to catch me in a lie.  I just answered them politely, thrown off trying to figure out why this guy I just met was drilling me.  Finally he said, "Well I've been here every Thursday evening for the last 12 years, and I've never seen you."

Well, I'd never seen him either, but that didn't cause me to question his presence there.  Frankly, I didn't really care.  My reaction wasn't any stronger than "Oh, that's weird."  It seemed to me that the most natural and reasonable response would have been to break the ice with a chuckle over the established oddity of being in the same building for so long and never seeing or hearing of each other, and then move on.  But he did not take it lightly at all.  He was almost contemptuous.  I insisted that I'd been working there 5 hours a night (including Thursdays), twice a week, but he only accepted it after my supervisor walked in and confirmed it.  Even then he was skeptical.

And ever since, he has been SO condescending, trying to assert his "seniority" over me.  He asks high-handed questions, always with a patronizing undertone, like I don't know a thing about the place.

"Are you sure that's your cart?  It looked like it was just sitting there."
"Have you ever done this before?  Because I don't have time to show you."
"Do you know where the DVDs go?"

Yes man, yes.

I've been pulling the cart around with me all night, I know how to keep an eye on it, and unfortunately sometimes it needs to sit still because I'm, you know, DOING MY JOB, pulling things off of it and putting them on the shelves.
I've done all the same work that you've done; and guess what!  You don't have to worry about crunching your time, because if I have questions, I will ask my supervisor, who you haven't seemed to figure out that you are not.
And I know exactly where the DVDs go because
a) I spent half a year working in DVD circulation, and
b ) I walk past the DVD section 20 times a night because it's that huge, wide open space SMACK-DAB in the MIDDLE of the library.  EVERYONE knows where the DVDs go.

Last night at the front desk, while I was shelving AV rentals and he was at the checkout computer, he made extra sure to tell me that I could work "behind" him, like he was allowing me the privilege of working under him (which I don't, by the way).  I just love how he acts as though I need permission to share the library with him.  He "corrects" the way I work and deliberately makes "suggestions" that, if followed, would result in inefficiency and a roundabout performance of my duties.  It smacks strongly of sabotage.  And when I finish my work in a timely manner, he doesn't just mind his own business or say something complimentary like "You work fast."  He says, "Wow, I guess you didn't have much to do after all."  He's being an antagonistic ass.

I just try to take it with good humor and do what I'm there to do, but still every time I walk through the doors I can feel the wave of scrutinizing antipathy like lasers shooting from his eyes, and it makes my skin crawl.  The strangest part is, he's so nice to everyone else!  He is very well-liked.  Somehow I became someone he feels he has to contend with, and I really don't get how that happened.

But he finally deigned to let me know his name.  It's Charles.  No, I cannot call him Charlie like everyone else does.  It's, Chaaaaaarles.

This is another one I wrote later.

Charles has found new ways to undermine me at work.  He waits until about 3/4 of the way through my session, when the cart of requests I've pulled is mostly full.  Then he brings his partially full cart over, puts his items onto my cart, and trades carts with me.  He takes my old cart to the back room, and I continue pulling requests and putting them onto the empty cart he exchanged.  He tells me it's so he can get a head start on checking in the books, and like a moron I've taken his word for it.  Not that I have much choice in the matter; if he asks for my cart, I'm required to give it to him.  I found out tonight that what he's actually doing is trying to make it look like I slack off.  He takes a full cart of books in and omits the fact that I'm the one who pulled them, and then my supervisors wonder why I'm walking in every night with a cart of books only one shelf full.  I overheard them talking about it in the back room.  He's been subtly inducing them to get rid of me.

I've also caught him doing sneaky things, like taking all the pens when I come in.  While I go out to the front desk to ask my supervisor for one, he puts them all back.  Then my supervisor goes into the back room and looks at me like an idiot for "overlooking" all the pens that are obviously there.  Try explaining that to your boss without sounding crazy.  Every night when I leave, Charles sends me off with a smirk and a snide "Good job tonight" or "See you next week, I hope."

I've never met someone so intent on thwarting me.  I'm thinking seriously about leaving.  Not so much because of what he's doing, but because it's working.  My supervisors are treating me like I'm stupid and giving me work well below my skill level.  They explain every little detail to me like I've never done it before.  I'm loath to quit, and if it were a paying job I'd just stick it out.  But I'm volunteering my time there, for what?  They've stopped giving me the involved work that I used to do, and they don't seem to want me in the back room anymore.  All they ever let me do now is shelve and pull requests in the juvy section, and I feel like I'm walking into a dead end every time I go in.  I wake up dreading it.  My services aren't really needed and my mind isn't being utilized.  I donno, I haven't decided yet, but I'm thinking about it.  I'm tired of the raised eyebrows and whispers behind my back.  I used to have civil relationships with these people.  I don't know why Charles has it in for me so, but whatever he's trying to do, he's succeeding.

Anyone else have a work nemesis?  How do you handle people like that?

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

It's amazing how quick people are to believe the worst about people. You've worked with most of those people before, so they are well aware of your capabilities. And yet they're willing to believe all the bad stuff that Charles makes up about you.

 

I was in a situation like that once, where I was being bad-mouthed by my own boss, in order to make his superiors believe that I was somehow responsible for every problem our group was having. Fortunately I was also doing quite a bit of work for another group leader, who was eventually able to get me transferred to his group. Whew!

 

If Charles only works Thursday evenings, I take it he's also a volunteer? Maybe he got used to being "the" volunteer on Thursdays, thought he was doing fine on his own, and takes your presence as an insult. But in any case, based on what you've told us, I think if I were you, I'd have a confidential chat with my supervisor and ask to be transferred to a different evening.

[Artemis]

I don't think that could be it, because I wasn't the only other Thursday night volunteer.  :/  There were always one or two others around, sometimes more.

 

I've actually switched nights a couple times, but it hasn't altered much.  Charles is there multiple nights during the week, and his schedule moves around now, so it's very difficult to avoid him.

 

 

[Carol the Dabbler]

Weird indeed.  Did/does he work directly with the other volunteers, and did/does he seem to get along with them?  Or would you be able to tell?  Does he make his caustic comments to you when others are around?

 

In general, I would not recommend mentioning the problems you're having with him (especially to your superiors), because it could sound like you're making excuses.  But if you're on good terms with any of the other volunteers he's ever worked with, you might want to ask them how they got/get along with him.

 

You might consider carrying your own pen with you.

 

Are there any other libraries in your area?

 

[Artemis]

You might consider carrying your own pen with you.

 

Lol, well he only did that particular thing once or twice, but he does other things like that.  I agree though, I haven't mentioned my problems with him to anyone.

 

He does work with the other volunteers, and they get along splendidly.  They're often seen talking and joking around with each other.  He's completely different with everyone else, he's a very charming person.  He doesn't make his caustic comments to me when anyone else is around, unless it's something that would sound innocuous on the surface but has an intended undertone only I will get.

 

No other libraries close enough to me, unfortunately.

 

 

[Pseudonym]

Hm, weird. Personally I would have left by now, who needs that kind of stress if you're not even getting paid for it? I know giving him the satisfaction of driving you out would be sickening, but yea, I'd be long gone. 

 

I don't think I've had any out and out nemeses at work. I've had people I very much don't get on with. Plenty of people I don't like. I think the only place I've had full on nemeses though was at school as a teenager. I haven't seen those people for years and I still hate them. 

[T.o.b.y]

I haven't had any enemies at work either, that I know of, but quite a few people I was afraid of, especially in senior positions.

 

There is one guy whom I really, really dislike, almost hate. But he is the head of a department that I only had to work in for three months for training purposes and don't otherwise have to deal with much. I doubt he even remembers who I am by now, so I wouldn't call him a nemesis. But boy, was I unhappy those three months. The man is a sadist imo, way more interested in exercising power over his staff members and criticizing them than in actually solving any problems.

[HerlockSholmes]

ITS A DISGRACE !!! Sorry to temporarily hijack the thread but it does say (The Rant Thread)

 

What is the world coming to.

[Artemis]

^ Sounds like it’s not a permanent change though?

 

Owners Nicholson’s Pubs were staying tight-lipped on Sunday - but it is understood the swift moniker change is an elaborate stunt for Hogmanay.

 

Not only has the pub been emblazoned with its new name, but the elaborate gimmick includes a stand-in sign.