Currently, there is a small section of my temple that is throbbing. Why, you ask? Because my office is located directly in back of a woman’s whose voice is not unlike a gravely-nasally cat’s, with a heavy Vermont accent. But one who has been smoking for about 30 years. Who SAYS she doesn’t smoke because she doesn’t want her daughter to know. But we’ve caught her smoking in her car.
This woman has a running commentary with herself on the daily trials of her life. And not quietly. LOUDLY talking to herself, or anyone who might listen, yelling about the “morons who sent this box to our department. No one with this name even works here! Ya’d THINK they could figure out that no one with that name works here. JESUS CHRIST!” She complains about everything. The paper is not the right thickness. The guy in repro screwed up her copies again. Well MAYBE if you filled out the form right, he’d be able to read it!
I, as low Swiddle on the totem pole, have an office which is a converted storage closet. As a result, it’s big office, but with filing cabinets everywhere. I’ll be working quietly at my desk, and she’ll barge in with an armload of filing, in midsentance, whining about something. I’ve taken to reading aloud whatever I am working on to show that I am not interested in listening to her constant tirades.
The thing that kills me is BECAUSE she complains about HOW MUCH she has to do, my boss assumes she’s busier than myself. Just because I have the self-control to keep my mouth shut, and handle my own problems, instead of consulting everyone in a 10 mile radius if I hit a road block. I find a problem? I fix it. She finds a problem? She whines for 15 minutes, bangs things aroung for 5, and gets my boss to fix it for her. No wonder she is busy.
But yesterday, in a conversation with my boss, it became apparent she believes this chick is legitimately busy. As a result, I got 2 months worth of HER backed-up data entry that SHE should have been doing herself, because MY stuff is up-to-date. Whiney-chick takes at least 3 1/2 hour breaks a day (do NOT call them smoking breaks) and yet still claims she doesn’t take a lunch break, so she leaves a half hour early every day. She started coming in at 6:00 (supposedly) so she leaves at 2:00, leaving me with ALL the customer service. I take one break in the morning to get my bagel, which I take back to my office, and one in the afternoon, to get my lunch, which I take back to my office.