Discrimination or Just Stupid?

Just stupid, I guess.

Once or twice I have alluded to the fact that one of the people I work with is not really great about doing her job. She likes to throw her weight around and tell the rest of us what to do and she likes to play the injured party and blame everyone else when things go wrong. My work life is complicated and I am not comfortable going into a lot of details here, but we work pretty autonomously with little to no supervision. She has come and gone as she pleases for more than a year, very seldom putting in 40 hours a week. She attempts to change policies and procedures which are in place for a reason (and she seems to be getting away with it, the world bows to her).

I am not one for a public fight. This blog is my attempt to fight the injustice of the world and I prefer to do it with the written word, instead of verbally, because I communicate better this way. So I tracked her. From the week after 4th of July 2008. I kept very detailed notes about her attitude (completely unprofessional) about the fact that NO ONE has that much leave time, about the fact that she is fairly stupid and has 0 communication or leadership skills.

One of the other ladies who works here received a promotion and a very large award at the end of last year, so the focus of the first person's rage (let's call her Bitch, so we are all on the same page) was redirected away from me. But life still wasn't great, walking on egg shells, never really sure what was going on or who was responsible for it.

Then Bitch was in a car accident and things went from bad to worse. She doesn't have health care (her choice, because we are offered really great stuff here for pretty cheap if you aren't covering anyone else!) and she apparently isn't getting any better. It has been over 7 months and she still can't turn her head and the stairs are painful and... and... and... whine, whine, whine.

Still I sat here, did my job, kept my head down and kept my notes. Day after day.

About 2 months ago I had to contact the higher ups for something (don't even remember) and was asked how things were here. I gave the standard, "busier than a 1 armed paper hanger speech" and was PUSHED for the truth. PUSHED. I realized that, eventually, something was going to have to be done and I told B2 (the higher up) that things weren't great. She came down, I (and the other girl who received a promotion) spilled our guts about how difficult bitch is to work with. We weren't the only ones. Others, who don't have anything to do with us, have said she is difficult, said it aloud.

And the other girl (understand not Bitch) was almost fired yesterday. Thisclose is what she was told.

There is more to this story, of course. But I can't give half the details and the other half are boring. The bottom line is that I (with help) attempted to make everyone's life better. I tried to save the company money. I tried to make the environment better and improve morale.

I thought that, just this once, life would be fair and the good guys would win.

Now I am polishing up my resume' and searching Craig's List. I am an excellant administrative assistant/office manager. I know the Office Suite and I can fix my own broken PC AND trouble shoot network and printer problems.

I love this job and the people in my building. But I am now on anti-anxiety medication; I can't sleep and my joints are achy & swollen, working with her is starting to affect my health.

Time to move on.

Right.