This and That

For many years, my dept at work was run by a manager who was slowly spiraling into some serious emotional and physical problems. She has never had the insight to recognize this, and seemed to believe that everyone was out to get her. This was not true, we all were very concerned and worried about her. But she made work very tense and any contact with her was very uncomfortable. She was erratic in her professional behaviour, gave conflicting answers to questions from one day to the next, reacted to problems either by ignoring them or by becoming emotional and ranting, would not be honest-if she told you to do something that later turned out to be incorrect, she would deny ever telling you to do it and would go behind your back and complain to coworkers about you screwing up, brought personal problems that were better kept to herself to work and blabbed stuff we didn't need to know. This all is on top of a suspected drug problem, prescription drugs, and alcohol. 

We, as a group, used to get together for dinner, holidays...etc... but stopped all that after a particularly painful Christmas dinner. She showed up at the restaurant very drunk, continued to drink after we arrived, complained in a very loud voice about how crappy the salad bar was-the whole time she was putting together her salad, bitched, griped and complained about her meal and sent it back, I think 3 times. Then started complaining about her (grown) daughter's plate and tried to send it back too. Her daughter told her to quit complaining and told the waiter that her meal was perfect. This was at Steak & Ale, where there are 3-4 tables per room, so everyone in the room was subjected to this nonsense. The more she drank, the louder she became. It was embarrassing. I told several people after the dinner that this would be the last time I would attend any get together that she would attend. I think this was everyone's feeling as this was the last time we all got together outside work.    

Well, she lost her job about 6 weeks ago. I hate it for her, but it was a long time coming. I wish they could have found another position for her, one where she wasn't in charge of others. But I suspect there was a lot going on behind the scenes that we weren't privy to. It's been upsetting, but the tension at work is gone. I no longer pull into the parking lot and get a knot in my stomach when I see her car, or try to scoot unseen past her office door. That part was usually easy, as she'd wait until you got on down the hall then start yelling for you. I could just ignore that and claim I didn't hear her the next time I saw her.

Well, as we all know, yesterday was Memorial Day. One of the newest members of our team suggested a cook-out. It was held at a co-worker's house, we all bought dishes or supplies and we had a ball!! It was so nice to be able to get together outside of work. I think getting to know your co-workers outside of work can make your work relationship better. Most everyone brought spouses, kids or some combination. We got to spend time together, catch up, see how much the kids had grown and just had a wonderful time. OMG, it was so nice to be able to do that without the loud, drunk, obnoxious, inappropriate boss around. Those of us who could stayed and helped clean up. I took several bags of left overs to work to Kelli & Sunny, who had to work. 

I hope this is the beginning of many more such get-togethers.  And the beginning of a new phase at work with our new manager!