Wow. Just wow. If that happened here it would be a huge scandal. Ginormous.
No… No, it wouldn’t.
Perhaps if it was information given to a reporter, or if a reporter happened to somehow accidentally request the specific sheet that was specific in the information of the order, which is public record, but wouldn’t even show up on the budget as anything but Request for funds for Purchase #34726 from the General Fund of XYZ for payment to Store Type Handbags on 07/23/11…
It is pretty difficult to figure this stuff out, which is why no one knew the Pentagon was paying $10k for screws for so long…
The other side of the mirror is hard to get to…
It depends on what assumptions you’re making here and how the extra bags were paid for.
I’d say it could be totally innocuous, and the supervisor may have added the extra 12 bags onto the larger order, and then billed the amount for just the extra bags to an “employee appreciation” line item on her department’s budget.
The manager might have been inappropriate or unethical in how she got the bags for her staff, but you don’t need to automatically assume that.
The bag purchase is all on the up and up. Permission was given. We are without a contract so there is no raise this year. I think Yvonne felt bad that her people are working so hard and she wanted to be able to show appreciation. She isn’t keeping a bag for herself btw.
I’m sure it is on the up-and-up in your office. I didn’t mean to imply otherwise. But in the USA if a government agency bought $200+ gifts for (only the female?) employees, on the taxpayer’s dime, it would be very very bad indeed.
Our government offices don’t even provide coffee.
Ours doesn’t even provide toilet paper for the staff bathroom any more… 
(We are supposed to use the remnants of the oversized rolls from the patron bathrooms when the janitor changes them out, but we don’t have a holder that fits that size in our bathroom (and they’re single-ply flat paper anyway) so now we just have an office pool and buy our own.)
Are you serious? 'Cause that is straight out of Snow Crash…
And I have to say again- no- no there would be no outcry. Can you read a City or Federal budget? Have you ever tried?
Very few people try, which is why there is an outcry when someone figures out just what Emp. Ret. F#3 (see attached memo) PRS. 12x $250.00 meant on the tiny little (5pt) type as one item in a list of several thousand, when no memo was attached after the fact…
Seriously? I didn’t even remember that! Great, now my life is like an apocalyptic science-fiction novel. At least it wasn’t Blade Runner; I’d have to go kill myself. 
Yeah, it’s sort of depressing. We thought we were bad off when they stopped buying us Kleenex (or, actually, off-brand facial tissues, but you get the drift). We were sort of stunned when the TP thing came up in a meeting a few months later.
We did use the cheap stuff for a while, and I don’t remember who brought up just buying our own instead, but we felt very rebellious that first month to not be using the scraps.
I should probably clarify that I am a Federal Subcontracts Manager for a large Government Contractor, and more than usually familiar with both the Federal Acquisiton Regulations and standard practice.
No way someone in the office doesn’t complain to the IG, or perhaps even the GAO. they are all suffering at low salary levels, and without even the most basic supplies. When I worked on site I brought my own pens and paper, and gently looked the other way when they disappeared.
Anything which smacks of “unfairness” or “preference” would create a maelstrom. And fashion accessories in the $200+ range would be particularly galling.
I agree that if it was brought to someone’s attention, yes- but working in a gov’t place where ‘things’ are purchased for many many many people (but not all) I can definitely see where the outrage comes from. Working on the city budget, however, is so difficult as to be pointless for those who aren’t steeped in the specific accounting procedures…
Getting back to the OP for a bit, I cannot believe that anybody here suggested that **Floaty **arrange some sort of sit-down or talk with these two. A one on one meeting with one of them will not help. A one on two meeting will have them telling lies about you and agreeing on it.
Also, their behavior is surprisingly parallel to one I had with a coworker who was, I thought, a fairly friendly intimate. We would laugh our heads off, and she would often do some of my work for me, and I would do things for her, since she was my friend.
Then, one day, she started snarling at me, and hasn’t stopped, I’m sure, tho it has been over a year ago, and I’ve since changed jobs. Of course, her drug use had something to do with it…
Best wishes,
hh
Yep, I’ve had this too. I worked in an office with one other woman, and we hit it off very well. Then one day I went home during lunch to wait for some furniture to be delivered. It hadn’t arrived on time, so I called in to say I’d be a bit late. She was dumbfounded that I’d *skip work to wait for furniture!!1!!! *and immediately went into bitch mode.
She would ignore me when I spoke to her; she made underhanded, nasty remarks about me to an outside client at dinner; she would ask me if I was free after work, and I’d say yes thinking she wanted to go out to eat or karaoke, but she’d say “Oh good, can you do my kitchen clean up duty (washing everyone’s teacups, cleaning the sink, tossing trash etc.) for me?” (a task I didn’t have to do); and just generally being a bitch. For nearly a full year, until I left to go to grad school.
I tried to talk to her, to work it out, but got a stonewalled “everything is fine!” response.
Sometimes, yeah, you just can’t reason with people. And some people will just dislike you no matter what.
Your situation, if I’m reading it right, is that you are new, have ambition and are outgoing and hard-working. Oh, and young and attractive and inexperienced-but-kicking-ass. They are older, no ambition, not particularly hardworking or outgoing, and that was just fine until you came along and provided a stark contrast, making them look bad. They were dead average before you got there, and now they look like slackers by comparison. The young/old, attractive/not is just tasty icing on the cake for them.
You’re a source of embarrassment to them. The only upside you can comfort yourself with is that soon you’ll have moved up in the organization, and they’ll have their nice comfy underachieving vibe back. Win-win! :D:D