The work vent

So far I’ve not said much about work and my co-workers, but I think I’ll give a little description of the environment and the inhabitants.

The environment:
The company I work for is so big I couldn’t honestly tell you where it’s headquartered because I don’t know. Year after year we’re told the raises are so small because there’s not much money in publishing. Hmmm, hard to believe a company of this size would stay in business if there weren’t money to be made. Perhaps they could save some cash and not give us the yearly stupid gift (mouse pad, pen, desk ornament, shoulder bag) laden with the stupid company logo. You can’t even regift the damn things because they have logos on them. One year my friend and I decided to gather up all the mouse pads and make a mobile. It was huge; it should have been in MOMA. We hung it in our conference room. It lasted for a few months and then mysteriously disappeared.

The boss:
I have to preface this vent by saying that for the most part I like my boss, however, she’s pretty passive aggressive and avoids confronting most issues. This used to bother me because we have one employee who basically decides her own hours (she might stroll in around 10 a.m., though technically we’re supposed to be here between 8:30 and 9) and she does not work late to compensate. This same employee started the same day I did, but miraculously it seems she has like 20 more weeks of vacation than I do. Before I knew better I’d talk to my boss about issues I had with this person, like I was tired of picking up her slack etc., but then I think I just came off as a whiner, because my boss never did anything about it and sort of tiptoed around the subject from then on. I’ve learned to ignore the inequalities and go on with my day. One thing that really irritates me is that when my boss wants me to do something that pretty much isn’t my job or that she figures no one else will do, she heaps on the phony flattery. Oh, I need you to write such and such because you’re just so good at it. Give me a break, you’re asking me to do it because I’m the only one who’ll get it done on time and not bitch about it.

The Diva:
This is the person I was referring to above. We started work on the same day, so we fell into sort of a ‘we’re in the same boat’ type of friendship. After a year of vapid conversations about shoes, shopping and why the latest guy she was seeing wasn’t perfect (meaning he wasn’t rich and European) I realized that relationship wasn’t going anywhere. Plus I got tired of feeling like regardless of what she did, she got away with it and was playing by a different set of rules than the rest of us.

The Whiner:
On the surface this guy seems ok, though a bit strange. From the first day he started work here all you heard out of his mouth was I’m ready to go home, I don’t want to be here. Yes, we all have these days, but this guy says it EVERY SINGLE DAY during every conversation you have with him. And, he’s spoiled and immature. Though I never really had respect for him, I lost any positive vibe this summer when his wife was expecting a baby. Early on in the pregnancy he made comments like, I hope my kid is cute, I can’t have an ugly baby. He bitched because he wasn’t getting sex every day and wondered aloud what he’d do for the six weeks after the delivery. Then there was the prenatal test to determine if there’s a possibility of downs syndrome, cerebral palsy etc. and he pushed his wife to have the test (which is infamous for false positives) because if it came back positive he’d push for an abortion, without a second thought, because he can’t have a retarded kid. Yes, this is me letting my personal views influence how I respond, but this just appalled me. I realize some people are pro-choice, and I support their right to be so, and maybe at one time in my life I leaned more toward pro-choice views, but since having kids I just can’t see that way anymore. It isn’t necessarily that he’d consider an abortion, because I wouldn’t hold having an abortion against anyone, but it was his reason why and the way he presented it. Now that he’s a dad all we hear about is how he doesn’t have any time to do what he wants to do, complaining about the kid not sleeping, complaining if one of the parents can’t help, and then he’ll throw in but I really love that kid. It’s almost like he feels obligated to say it so we here it, like he’s trying to convince us. Granted I know sometimes I go on and on about my kids, telling the incredibly funny and creative things that come out of their mouths, but I don’t feel compelled to tell people how much I love them every time I talk about them. Maybe it’s me, maybe I’m being judgmental, but he really just pisses me off.