This topic does not involve swimming AT all ... sorry ... I cannot stand my co-worker! She drives me crazy. First of all, I work in a very small law firm. There a total of eight employees. Four attorneys (one is part time), two secretaries, an errand boy (aka the head partner’s son), and myself. We have an open office sans cubicles. So there is NO escape. Moving on ... we are a very busy firm. Normally we have a couple of law clerks but right now we don’t. So most of the extra work falls on me. We don’t really have carved out jobs really we all kind of do everything. Though we do all have things that only we do. The annoying co-worker complains non-stop all day long. Seriously. Either she doesn’t have enough to do or the guys ask her to do stuff and she flips out “I don’t have time for this. I can’t handle this right now.” She complains about everything she is asked to do. She complains and/or comments on every phone call she answers. She gets all snippy with me and has basically told me that if I keep eating the way I do (I snack on healthy things all day) that I am going to get fat, so I should enjoy it while I can get away with it. She talks endlessly about how her son is in marching band and how that is the most important thing EVER, how hard it is and how much time it takes up ... I want to yell, do you know how many hours a week I spent in a gym in high school? Like, 30! AH! I can’t take it. I seriously want to yell SHUT UP! Everyone is busy and no one cares. She is a drama queen to the max. She is ALWAYS in pain, her knee, her back, she has a headache, a stomach ache, a cold ... she hasn’t been here everyday all day for two weeks since I started in September. It drives me crazy. I am really afraid that one day I’ll just blurt out shut up you whiney wench! Gr! Do any of you have annoying co-workers and how do you deal with it? Thanks!
Usually, I am not a complainer I swear, and I do see the irony of complaining about someone complaining.
Former Member
lol ... that's what I am talking about. She tries to make me feel bad about the fact that I eat a lot. I think because she is on a very restricted diet and trying to lose weight (because she used to be really tiny, don't know when 4'10" and 120 was tiny, but ... whatever) I do actually usually respond now with well I work out like six times a week hardcore, so ...
I am seriously hungry all the time ... I think mostly due to working out a lot. The first thing I think when I wake-up (after, is it 6 already?) is dang I'm hungry! I eat all the time ... I get made fun of for it all the time ... I eat healthy things, mostly fruits and veggies ... I just eat a lot, and so far my waist line is still in decrease mode (I've never been even remotely chunky), so it seems to be working ok ...
Originally posted by SwiminONandON
I am seriously hungry all the time ... I think mostly due to working out a lot. The first thing I think when I wake-up (after, is it 6 already?) is dang I'm hungry! I eat all the time ... I get made fun of for it all the time ... I eat healthy things, mostly fruits and veggies ... I just eat a lot, and so far my waist line is still in decrease mode (I've never been even remotely chunky), so it seems to be working ok ...
What you eat is no one's business but your own. I eat like 5 times a day and that's my problem not anyone else's. Besides, it's not like your eating is affected anyone else and your not sitting around all day surrounded by a Krispy Kreme castle not working. At my last job (I was a server (yuck)), we had water bottles that we could use but they were all gone so I just decided to use one of the numerous sippy cups that were also in the bin (they were clean no worries washed them myself). I got so much crap for drinking out of that cup. I tried explaining to people that it was simply a mini-water bottle with a soft top rather than a hard one, but everyone just saw it as an excuse to attack me for no reason. It really bothered some people, but it was none of their business what I was drinking out of. My using a small cup didn't effect their ability to do their job so I kept using it (eventually I did it just to piss them off but that's beside the point). So I say more power to you and eat whatever you want...it's the perk of being a swimmer!! She's probably just jealous that you can sit and snack all day with out a problem.
Interesting posts….
I have found over the years that people at work (life in general) are much the same as the guy who wakes up and drives to work some faceless morning and gets killed in a car wreck….People do not get up in the morning and go…Oh wow, I want to go get killed in a car wreck today anymore then they say...Oh wow, I get to go into the office today and totally hack off everyone I work with…..
In that I mean….people …. Mostly….are not intentionally being bad employees or butt heads….they just do not realize it…and if they did….MOST would change or alter the behavior that is offensive.
In the few cases where they do not care…well….I stay away from those types because when enough is enough…I can be blunt if needed….
My suggestion is to share a story of someone else in your life who exhibits the SAME behavior that she does, and tell her this person drives you wild…….and see if she catches the correlation to her own behavior….
Originally posted by Tom Ellison
Interesting posts….
I have found over the years that people at work (life in general) are much the same as the guy who wakes up and drives to work some faceless morning and gets killed in a car wreck….People do not get up in the morning and go…Oh wow, I want to go get killed in a car wreck today anymore then they say...Oh wow, I get to go into the office today and totally hack off everyone I work with…..
In that I mean….people …. Mostly….are not intentionally being bad employees or butt heads….they just do not realize it…and if they did….MOST would change or alter the behavior that is offensive.
In the few cases where they do not care…well….I stay away from those types because when enough is enough…I can be blunt if needed….
My suggestion is to share a story of someone else in your life who exhibits the SAME behavior that she does, and tell her this person drives you wild…….and see if she catches the correlation to her own behavior….
As I was reading all these posts, I had this exact same thought: engage her in a tale of someone who has the same annoying traits that she has and describe how it makes everyone around this person crazy and want to kill the person. See if she takes the hint. (You could end the tale by saying, "hint, hint.")
If she doesn't get the hint, maybe you could try the direct approach. Consider this: during one of her rants, stand there with a bewildered look on your face in plain view of all. When she finishes, ask to see her in the broom closet, the kitchen, the loo, or somewhere else. Then tell her what you think. You are leaving in 4 months. It may be therapeutic. It may brighten everyone's day. It may enlighten her. (It may enrage her also.) But the point is: why do you have to live with her? Why not make her live with you for a while? You may leave a lasting legacy at your firm.
Now back to swimming....
Silly and not so silly ideas...
How about employee assistance if you have one as part of the benefits package? You can either drop not so subtle hints --like talking to her directly or bring it to your boss, or secretly put flyers or photocopy psychotherapists' numbers out of the phone book and wall paper her cubie.
Random notes or quotes on how to de-stress --which it's sounding she is and complaining about/venting it is not helping her or anyone else.
Keep in mind that a possible positive thing out of this is you maybe swimming very well by trying to get all the frustrations out by swimming laps.
Maybe you can suggest a master's team WAY ACCROSS TOWN.... or another physical activity she can do while her perfect kid is in marching band practice and she can run/walk around the track and get into a masters running group --they have those right? Tell her she can eat MORE if she exercises and it will reduce stress levels too!
:eek:
Heather,
Are you sure that you don't work in my office? Sounds like the same stuff I put up with here. Slightly different details to the "complainer's" stories, but basically the same: their problems are always more important that yours.
There's a know-it-all in my office who won't speak to me, won't even look at me when I pass her or worse, won't step into the same elevator I am on! What did I do to her? Beats the crap out of me! She's exactly eight months older than I, is short, fat, dumpy and looks about 15 years older and probably has no life. She's latched onto another woman in the office who is too nice to tell her to get lost. This one knows what's she's doing to be sure. It used to bother me quite a bit, but since I have great rapport with everyone else in the office, I worry less about it. This person's attitude is a result of poor management in my office; the previious administration let her run Scott-free for years. Now they can't do much about it.
I think that basically every office, organization, etc., has its own set of troublemakers. Guess it's a fact of life. I also figure that these jerks get their "comeuppance" eventually ... we just don't have the patience to see it come to pass.
Alicat's right. Many of us swim to rid ourselves of stress ... and that stress comes from the office. As Ralph Kramden said, "One of these days, Alice, ... bang, zoom!" (Now you younger folks probably don't even know who Ralph and Alice Kramden were. You pretty much have to be a Boomer or older to remember them!) :D
Originally posted by SwiminONandON
lol ... that's what I am talking about. She tries to make me feel bad about the fact that I eat a lot. I think because she is on a very restricted diet and trying to lose weight (because she used to be really tiny, don't know when 4'10" and 120 was tiny, but ... whatever) I do actually usually respond now with well I work out like six times a week hardcore, so ...
Just smile and say, oh, I'm just lucky that way, I have a metabolism of a hummingbird ;)
That one you can actually say and not get in trouble for being inappropriate.
Tom and Fred,
I tried your suggestion a couple of years ago: making up a person that was annoying me and relating that to my negative co-worker.
Result: she ADMITTED she was like that too "I can relate to that. I'm like that," and proceeded to give several reasons why and basically justify her negativity!
Now, where do you go with that? I personally just lock my door and don't let the negativity in.
