For scenarios like this it would be possible to play along to the extreme.
“Yes, I love dogs. I have sixteen of them, and they all sleep on my bed! I end up sleeping on the couch.”
“Oh, I know about Bob, I saw him bugging the VP’s office the other day!”.
Although that will piss her off, and it sounds like you might be better off to stay under the radar as much as possible. Another possibility is a general muttering “you know me better than myself” (which should appease her) then wander off or change the subject.
Schools often do. Facebook, YouTube, Reddit and such are blocked, but if you’re on something else that doesnt seem like it pertains to your job, you’ll get asked about it.
Schools are a little different, though. No one wants his kid’s kindergarten teacher browsing web sites all day.
Buy her nice booze and lots of candy she likes to eat. Lots of booze. And hope she is an alcoholic, which she probably is. This will endear you to her and be her downfall. As an alternative, just send her booze anonymously at home. Lots of it. But don’t do both. Just one.
Or, find another job at another company.
Sue her for defamation if she ever says that you are incompetent when she is making up psychic shit.
Unless she is the wife of the President, or similarly involved.
Make an e-mail address and send an anonymous e-mail to president with essentially what you’ve written here. Make sure it can in no way be tracked back to you and has no identifying information. The effective thing I think this will do is to plant the kernel of doubt in the president’s head.
You could consider sending it to everybody. Then maybe more people will come out of the woodworks against her, but I think that steps over the line.
Harmonix, the first thing that popped into my mind while reading your suggestion… “Anonymous emails to the President? I dunno, it’s not smart to screw around with the Secret Service.”
It is and it isn’t. I spent 6 years working in electronic discovery and computer forensics. Baically all the information is saved in server logs and email archives and as fragments of deleted files on your hard drive. And depending on their regulatory requirements certain companies or industries will purchase monitoring software. And some companies will passively block certain sites. But actually getting at this information in a structured way is time consuming and expensive. Companies tend to only dig it up when they are actively investigating someone. Typically an IT department is too swamped with their day to day work to sit there actively monitoring employees to see what web sites they browse.
I can’t comment on schools, but given their limited budget and resources, I would imagine that more often word of parental mouth about someone’s Facebook postings are enough compliance activities.
“What is this bullshit?” Mark as SPAM
Presidents and CEOs have better things to do than get involved in petty office bickering.
Again…not trying to ACTUALLY sleep with her.
Yeah, you could do this. But every company has jerks and you can’t just pack up and go whenever the social situation is uncomfortible.
Yes, turn your army of attornies on retainer against her. Problem is this is expensive for you and you still need to show damages besides “made me feel sad”.
I mean really, what is this person actually “doing” to the OP other than spreading annoying office gossip?
Try to relax. Both you bitches are pretty.
An e-mail with specifics about named co-workers and actions she has taken is not spam. As long as prez guy actually opens the e-mail s/he would probably read it.
Besides, what is there to lose? There are no repercussions if the prez just marks it as spam.
It would only be part of a multi-pronged strategy to take down evil-coworker.
Yeah, bringing up her meds or medical condition is too risky. If you don’t choose your words carefully you could end up looking bad even with no twisting at all on her part, especially if you say the wrong thing to a member of her fan club.
This sounds exactly like the woman who got my wife fired after 27 years at her job. Her cozy relationship with the director of the organization got her into positions of increasing responsibility that she wasn’t qualified for. She made sure she was seen as a real go-getter even though most of her business decisions were complete crap. She always managed to get credit for herself when things went well and got others to take the fall when things went bad. Talented people who had been with the organization for many years got canned so she could bring in her incompetent cronies to take their places. (My wife used to joke that it was like a mini version of the Bush administration.) I kept telling my wife she needed to find another job but she had been there so long she thought she could hold out another few years until retirement. Unfortunately it didn’t work out that way.
My advice is to get out while you can. If she has the ear of someone in authority there is really nothing you can do other than constantly watch your back.
Document every positive thing you accomplish at work. Everything. Print it on paper and keep a file in the back of your desk drawer. Just in case.
Try not to let the psycho bother you. Do not feed into her negative energy. If she comes to you with gossip (about you or anybody else) respond with a slight nod and a “huh.” Then immediately change the subject, preferably to something work-related. “Say, I was just looking over the Veeblefester contract. Do you think paragraph 6 is too vague?”
Say nothing to the president or any other higher-ups. Really. They don’t care about this shit.
In the (very unlikely, IMO) event that Ms. Evil’s antics call your professional competence into queston and you are required to defend yourself to your superiors, see step 1 and refer to your file documenting your excellent work history.
Granted, this was in school, but the only strategy I’ve successfully used is to be well liked by anyone in charge of me, and to just stay off in my own world otherwise–being just nice enough that no one could exactly hate me. The latter is a weird type of laying low where everyone knows who you are, but no one gives a crap about you.
I don’t know how successfully you could apply this in the real world. Getting teachers to like you is easy.
Thing is, I’m an attorney and I do a lot of defamation cases. If someone defames you at your trade, you don’t need to show damages in most jurisdictions. This is a situation where you’ve called the hammer salesman and he recommends a hammer. But it does happen to look like the problem is a nail.
Not that I recommend a hammer. I recommended getting another job.
As for the booze, its a way to get her fired. She will get hammered all the time with free booze and get fired. Never tried it. Works with people who like to drink. I’d imagine.
Before following the most popular suggestion, read the blueprint.
And that’s the real problem: the woman fills a niche, and even if you get rid of her, she’ll merely be replaced unless the Stasi-style of management ends. If your president fears and mistrusts his employees, be grateful that he’s making it so obvious and start your escape plan now.
I like this. It’s not passive-aggressive, it’s not “clever” in a way that will backfire, and it’s not underhanded. Simply call her out on her shit, in front of her and in front of others.