Nah, it’s all done and over with. Enough drama for me.
I’m afraid I’m getting deeper into the bad books with Judy.
The head IT guy decided that I’m going to be in charge of the four boardrooms on our floor. I’m going to get training on all the equipment including the really awesome new video conferencing equipment. He also wants me to be the only one who can book board rooms so everyone will have to go through me, including Judy. When he called me “The Queen of the Boardrooms” she shot me a bit of a look.
Then a little later Judy and Sally’s boss came out to say that we should get a card for one of the people in their department because her dog had died this morning and she was quite upset about it. Well I happened to already know because she told me herself, so I’d gone and bought a card already. When the boss said we should get a card, I held up the one I had and said we can use this. The boss said “FloatyGimpy, you’re always just on”.
I didn’t even look at Judy for fear of being scowled at to death.
The situation seems clear. Your behavior speaks to fierce competition with your co-workers. You want to stand out above the others and you’re succeeding, probably because you’re more motivated and willing to make sacrifices or simply just more competent. Those women got jealous and realized they were weaker individually so through natural bitchiness teamed up to screw you over.
You need to be firm but professional and establish some boundaries. Be on the lookout and expect them to pounce when you slip up. Stand up for yourself but own your mistakes. Don’t run to your boss with petty issues.
Also making a habit of buying the brass with expensive chocolate is not an endearing trait in the office, IMO. It’s your choice but don’t act surprised if it sours you to those who can’t or won’t afford that.
No matter what you do in your life, there will always be someone who hates you for it.
I know it sounds kind of obvious, but it’s weird…i never thought I could not go through life making friends just by being polite and nice, and it was a real shock to me when I found people hated me for being polite and nice because it made them look bad.
The advice in this thread is golden. Just be aware that you can never make everyone happy and you shouldn’t even try.
Advice from me: Be professional. Be serious. That doesn’t mean don’t smile and don’t laugh, but maintain a professional demeanor throughout. And never, ever let the bitches get you down. Whatever they say doesn’t make it true, does it?
My only worry is that if you are too indispensable in your position, they won’t want to promote you out of it. Well, that and that Judy might try to poison you.
Fuel is being added to the fire, but it’s for a good cause.
Judy and Sally’s boss, we’ll call her Yvonne, is giving everyone in her department (including Judy and Sally) custom made leather bags from Roots. They cost $243 each. Each of them is receiving a letter of thanks and the bag but Judy and Sally are their admins and Yvonne can’t get them to help her out because it’s a surprise. So she asked me for help with it all. So I did all the letters and shipped some of the bags to people in their department that work in other cities.
So this meant Yvonne talking to me for extended periods in quiet whispers for a couple days. And it meant me, quickly covering up things on my desk when certain people walked by so they wouldn’t see what I was doing. So today I gave her all the letters for signing and she said out loud and almost directly to Judy “I just love this girl, don’t you just love her? I wish she worked for me. I may have to steal you, I’m good at that!”.
Judy didn’t say a single word, just looked at me with total hate in her eyes which I couldn’t help but almost laugh about because I know how it must look to her. But she’ll be happy when she gets her package and lovely bag.
I hope you don’t take this the wrong way, but it’s starting to sound like you’re enjoying your feeling of superiority to Judy. That’s not really the advice you’ve been given here.
Your posts strike me as things I would have posted in my early-twenties when I was still a bit immature and wanted to be the golden girl at work, like I had been the teacher’s pet at school.
I think she’s just letting off steam after having had such an awful time of it last week. No reason not to secretly enjoy it when the tables turn.
Again, though, I hope you’re not too indispensable in your job that they don’t want to lose you there. Try to take on responsibilities that are above your position if you can finagle it.
Yeah, I dunno sandra_nz. In the OP, I was thinking how much I’d like to work with someone like FloatyGimpy. And as her posts were added, now I’m not so sure…
Just so I’m clear. I’m still very sad about the whole thing. Judy and Sally are a wealth of information and we helped each other out a whole lot. I know a fraction of what they do, they’ve been there for 16 and 13 years and I’ve been there for 8 months. I know quite a bit more about computers and Microsoft Office and I felt like I was able to at least contribute by helping them with that while they would help me with all the things they know.
I know that secretly helping out their boss makes me look bad, that’s why I even said “I know how it must look to her”. But I’m still on my 6 months probation there, I’m not really in a position to tell their boss that I wouldn’t help her. I am trying to do everything that’s asked of me, quickly and correctly.
I started as just a temp there and didn’t become permanent till December so that’s why I’ve been there 8 months but am still on my 6 months probation.
Nothing that I have done has made them look bad. Nobody except Judy, Sally, my boss and I know about the Blasted Fax Brouhaha.
Trust me, talking here about how things are going for me at work, the good and the bad, has no bearing on what actually happens there.
After all, they’re the ones getting the awesome bags as a thank you. I am not.
Yeah, what needscoffee said… it’s nice to always take the high road but I don’t blame her one bit for enjoying Judy’s discomfiture a little.
Especially when FloatyGimpy knows that in a little bit Judy will realize what’s really going on is that Floaty is actually doing something really, really nice for Judy. It would be different if Floaty were reveling in Judy’s misfortune, or something.
I’d personally like to work with someone like her!
ETA: Didn’t see FloatyGimpy’s last post before posting, but that doesn’t change the substance of anything I’ve said. Except that Floaty, you may want to point out, perhaps framing it as a joke (“Hey, weren’t you surprised?”), explicitly to Judy that this is why you’ve been spending all the time with her boss, so you know she knows exactly what’s been going on.
As a guy, I have watched these things occur, and have been the focus of several of these little office conspiracies, but I have tried to stay above them.
It is difficult- once one of our co-workers said some unbelievable stuff about me for zero reason- I talked to the boss to let her know what was going on, but asked her not to take action (as the stuff was actionable) and then after 4 days of literally not speaking to me she was back to being my best buddy.
She told me later it was after a break-in where a $10k diamond anniversary ring was stolen and she was PMSing- so I try to really take all these things with a grain of salt now…
It may not be related to you at all, so the keep your chin up and don’t trip is the best advice you can get.
This post, FloatyGimpy, seals the deal for me. Now I’m sure I wouldn’t want to work with you. In my opinion, you come across as an immature opportunist. The justifications, the oh-so-helpful you, the fact that “Nobody except Judy, Sally, my boss and I know…” smacks of passive aggressiveness. Although “…they’re…getting the awesome bags as a thank you. (I) am not” you will make sure you will not be passed over for anything else. Ever. “Trust me…”? Sorry, FloatyGimpy - I wouldn’t.
That you like your job so much is great. Personally, I’d dial back on the ‘look at me! look at me!’ aspects - but hey, how people choose to get where they want in this world is their own prerogative.
It’s actually Judy’s boss, with the company’s money “doing something really, really nice for Judy.” FloatyGimpy is merely following the directives of a superior. As she said, she’s “not really in a position” to refuse this simple task. But I’m sure she will be in a position to refuse, in an astoundingly short period of time.
Thank you for saying that. I’m super ultra sensitive so sometimes I’m not sure if I’m coming across properly or if the other person is not getting it. I’m trying really hard to learn how to not be so sensitive but I don’t really know how.
So I was confused how “they know so much more than I do and I’ve not told anyone about the fax thing” translated into me being nasty.
And just to be clear, I know my place at work. I am at the very extreme bottom of the totem pole. The only type of decision making I have is I am allowed to decide if I want to help other departments or not. Some times I don’t have time and have to tell them “sorry, no”. I had time to help Yvonne and I know how thrilled everyone is going to be with their bags so I was happy to help.
I’ve been getting positive feedback at work and it made me happy, sorry if I came across as nasty.
needscoffee, I see FloatyGimpy as an opportunist because it seems to me that her outward actions are a polite cover for her inner intentions.
The chocolates are on her desk not because she’s simply generous, but because she "…really REALLY wanted the job and found a way to get everyone to come to me so I could get to know them.” Mind you, she puts out the “good stuff” at the “fun zone” – not like others who “always have crappy mints or something.”
“The big head honcho would come by a couple of times a day and every day I’d smile my friendlies (sic) smile and he’d get a chocolate. I figured out what his favourites were and always had them.” That they cost her an arm and leg was a short-term loss for her near future goal of being hired.
There is a smug superiority to FloatyGimpy’s narrative; and there appears stark incongruity between who FloatyGimpy is, and who she likes others to perceive her to be.
[COLOR=black][FONT=Trebuchet MS]In my mind, you don’t say things like, “…don’t be such a fucking pussy you stupid bitch…” unless you actually think in those terms yourself. And it’s contradictory to the helpful-friendly-treat filled-smiling terms in which she describes herself.
[COLOR=black][FONT=Trebuchet MS]It’s a goody-goody tap-dance routine covering manipulation and intent. That it doesn’t wash with me is no big deal. That FloatyGimpy will try to convince me that it’s not all that is fine. All part of the programme!
[/FONT][/COLOR]
Maybe only I see it. If that’s the case, so be it. She knows who she is better than I do. [/FONT][/COLOR]
FloatyGimpy, your “I don’t know if I’m allowed to but if not I’ll just claim innocence” statement (about installing Firefox) is very revealing to me. Someone not quite so underhanded would simply ask.
I do wish you the best in your job. And I’m sure this petty grievance will sort itself out. They always do. To make room for the next one.
