October 2, 1997 in the early morning hours...
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Human nature scares me sometimes. I just recently quit my job at the bank. Last night was the end of it. Contrary to popular belief, I quit my job not because of the hours (9:30pm to 8am, four nights a week with mandatory overtime) or the difficulty of the job, but because of all of the catty office politics. That may lead a person to believe that I didn't get along well with the people there, but that's not true either. The boss and most of my coworkers liked me very much. Of course, I occasionally got into arguments with a few people there, but that's natural, and I never took that stuff seriously anyways.
So when, where, and how did the problem start? I had worked in this setting for almost four months, and enjoyed the first three very much. This last month it became almost impossible to motivate myself to want to work. Call me crazy, but I really do enjoy working very much. Maybe it's a pride thing, I don't know. I just feel more complete if I'm a busy girl. The work didn't become more difficult, nor was I really changing... Okay, let's just come out and say it. My supervisor is an ignorant bitch. Yes... it's true. Sometimes she amazed me with her stupidity! She let her feelings and her hormones get in the way of doing a good job. She had the hots for every male within 5 miles. I was very tempted to put her picture up on the net, but that's unethical, and she's also a sore sight for eyes. I'm no toothpick girl myself, but she was the size of three of me! Okay... let's not go into her physical attributes, which has NOTHING to do with the fact that I don't like her. She wasn't getting any action for some strange reason... and I realize that there are people who can look past appearances, but after delving into her character, you'd realize that she didn't have one. Still, I have yet to get to the point... One of the other single gals in the office who was previously a very depressed gal in her own right, started getting "regular action" from her brand new boyfriend. How could we tell? She went from gloomy and bitchy to happy and cheerful within the course of one very eventful weekend. Also, she started receiving rides to work from a mysterious guy... So how did my boss react? She experienced that terrible emotion called jealousy. Feeling jealous is a natural and acceptable way to feel, but a more intelligent individual would not act upon those feelings... But my not so intelligent boss did act upon those feelings.... Now again I need to add another point... the gal who was getting some action had always been the speediest worker there. In fact, that's why she was so useful in this understaffed bank. Of course, being the speediest, she made quite a few mistakes. This was also acceptable because it was my job to find her mistakes. Without going into great detail, our boss began to scrutinize this gal's every action, and manage to embarass the hell out of her on a daily basis by bringing it to everyone's attention. The girl's work in all reality had actually become better after she got a boyfriend. She had more of an incentive to work now. This didn't matter to my boss... she was bent on trying to can the girl. Many of my coworkers and I became increasingly upset over all of this childish kind of behavior going on. We also noticed a double standard developing. There had always been less than driven workers in our department. One worker fell asleep every night for over a week on the job. She was a friend of the boss, therefore nothing was said about it for ages. Other workers goofed around and took more than their fair share of breaks. Again, our supervisor never said anything to these individuals. Others would stand around and talk when there was still plenty of work to be done. One other point to be made is that we were generally not allowed to leave until all or most of our work was finished. We began to feel that natural and acceptable emotion called resentment. Why should we have to stay late and pick up the slack for other workers? Now I didn't really let that get to me either, and that's not why I quit either.... The plot thickens even more... The only other ingredient we need in this recipe for disaster came in the form of the most hated kind of worker. Yes... the butt kisser! One thing for sure was that this guy had his work cut out for him.... there was plenty of her butt for kissing. My not so intelligent boss did not ever realize that he was only being so sweet and understanding to her so that he could make the climb up the proverbial ladder. What I still find amusing is that there was little room to climb in that dead end, no advancement, little reward workplace. Many in the office began to speculate whether or not they were sleeping together, but I doubt it. Let's just say that this guy was a snitch, liar, and just plain weezel. You could not talk to him without it getting back to the boss in an over-embelished way. His main goal was to make himself look better, and all of the other workers worse. In other words, eliminate the competition even before they become competitive. So he helped to can the gal who now is no longer getting any action. She isn't out of a job yet, but she was given a shape up or ship out warning that sounded to me as if she'd be gone shortly. Of course, many of the other workers in the department were just a bit horrified with what was going on, and began talking about it. Of course, our under cover butt kisser filled in my not so intelligent boss, blowing things out of proportion as well. He basically made this oversensitive, ignorant woman feel very paranoid and threatened by all of us gossipy workers. So one by one the boss centered out us oh so gossipy workers, and made us to feel very unsafe... Apparently the butt kisser did his job so well, that the boss was now looking for any excuse to fire any of us. So I put in my two week notice. There will be three others leaving soon. Considering that our department only had eleven workers at its height, there will be nobody left but the talkers to do all of that work. That's why human nature scares me... we can be so easily deceived. A job that I had loved for three months had turned sour simply because one gal got a boyfriend, and a jerk found his way of getting to the top. Now he'll have seniority over most of the others, and therefore will be first in line for the promotion to shift leader. Big deal. A lot of people were hurt along the way. I did learn one important lesson, though. It's very easy to get canned. I didn't allow it to happen to me, but it would have if I had stayed. Did I gossip about my ignorant boss and her butt kissing sidekick? No. But I did make the mistake of listening to someone who was justly unhappy with the way things were going.
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