I swear, everyone in my office is an adult, but sometimes the people I work with seem like they’re still in the seventh grade.
There’s this one woman who works so hard at trying to impress others that it would be comical if it weren’t so sad. As examples, the very first time I met her, she slipped in a somewhat irrelevant reference to her university degree and her certification, as though she wanted to make sure I thought of her as well-educated. She does this with all her cow-orkers. She seems compelled to interject into random conversations the fact that she and her hubby drove “the Porsche” to the mall last week. She has one pair of Manolo Blahnik shoes – or at least fake red-soled shoes – and has to make sure everyone knows they’re Blahniks. (“Oh, damn, I just had to go and wear my Blahniks on a day when it rained, didn’t I?!”) She tries to boast about her child winning a poetry contest (though it turned out to be one of those poetry “contests”, where every entry wins as long as the parents buy the book.) She has a noticeable facial deformity – an enormous pointy nose, bad enough that it could be considered a facial deformity – so I can only guess that maybe she has a deep need to overcome whatever childhood scars came from that. I dunno. Regardless, on the surface, she really comes across as feeling superior to the rest of us, but to me, the attempt is pathetic in execution. I mean, when you wear Blahnik shoes with Walmart pants, it looks affected. Most people seem to be either sincerely impressed or they merely indulge her in her excessive need for admiration. Big-Nose is also ambitious – she is quite the sycophant around managers and the executive.
A month or so ago, she applied for a job supervising workers in another department. A few qualified professionals also applied, but they then dropped out when they found out the salary would be no higher than their current rate. It ended up that Big-Nose and one other, somewhat mousy clerk were the only ones left. Big-nose got the job.
Well, by her reaction, you would’ve thought she’d been crowned Miss America. Good for her, I figured, maybe now she’ll gain the confidence she needs so that she won’t have to work so hard to impress those around her. Her first day on the job, however, showed her lack of qualifications for effectively managing others.
The first day, Big-Nose made fun of one staff member behind his back when he didn’t understand how to use her new day-planning chart – bad enough, in itself, but she was snickering about him with other clerks from her former department. She then complained – again, to other clerks – that another staff member seemed to resent her taking on the supervisory role and didn’t verbally welcome Big-Nose on her first day.
This bothered me, because I could hear the loud whispers and snickers through the cubicle walls and I didn’t think a supervisor should be disparaging her staff to staff members from another department. Office gossip travels fast, particularly when it’s a supervisor who’s started the gossip. I didn’t say anything, though. I generally keep my mouth shut and stay out of this sort of thing.
One particularly gossipy staff member – Gossiop-Monger – was blathering on and on to the woman in the next cubicle all about the “stupid” person in Big-Nose’s department who didn’t know how to use the day-planner and the “rude” person who resented Big-Nose’s position. I couldn’t help but overhear, and it was annoying me when I was trying to work. The woman cut her off, responding that it was unprofessional of Big-Nose to be disparaging her staff to others in the company.
Big, big mistake. It’s been several weeks now, and the “invisible icicles” of a social freeze are still looming about and now the air turns blue-cold whenever this woman has to deal with Big-Nose. The staff gossiper is visibly miffed, too, having had her game of “Hee hee, I’ve got top-secret inside information!” quashed – I guess that made her feel chastised.
I quietly told my frozen-out co-worker that she was right – Big-Nose was unprofessional. I felt bad for the frozen-out person; I felt bad for the poor guy who had trouble with the vacation planner; and I felt empathy for the staff member who resented having Big-Nose for a supervisor. (But I was very quiet and discreet when I admitted that).
Last week, Big-Nose fired one of her staff members. Then, she came back to her old department and moaned about the terrible headache she had because she’d “just had to fire someone”. It had not yet been announced that the staff member had been let go, and protocol says that Human Resources should issue a formal announcement, but, once again, Big-Nose wanted everyone to be reminded that she is now a supervisor and has “power” to fire people, so she nearly went from cubicle to cubicle in the next aisle over from me, complaining about her terrible headache and making sure everyone knew why she had it.
I feel bad for all these people, and in particular, feel bad for the poor folks supervised by Big-Nose. Anytime they make a mistake, it will become fodder for Big-Nose’s mocking gossip throughout our department, and the Gossip-Monger will take glee in disparaging anyone she doesn’t like.
I guess this is what happens when you put unqualified people into positions that require some sort of people-skills training. I’ve always worked with adults before, so I’m not sure how to deal with people who are emotionally stuck in junior high school. I plan to continue to keep my head down and quietly do my job until I can get out of this stupid company, but I am wondering if there’s any more effective advice out there for someone who has to witness this circus every day. I am also wondering what I should do if the Gossip-Monger comes by and starts telling ME all about Big-Nose’s latest unprofessional stunts. Any suggestions?
Although, by posting this I am trying to convince the boards that I know something about high-class shoes. I went to a good school too. 