Friday, January 13, 2006

Major Boss Tantrum

Boss put on a real performance this morning. This morning, Boss threw a MAJOR tantrum.
I should have known she was getting ready to put on a show when I arrived at work and she was already there. She never is, but she was today. And when I said good morning her face looked strange, like there was something jumping around under the skin.
Shortly after we sat down to open the mail [Colleague, who usually helps me, is still on holiday], Boss shook the contents of an envelope and said, 'Who is this for!' It was some competition, so I told her that they usually went to the Members department, because it was Members who had been having these competitions lately. Boss said, "Well you don't send everything to the Members department! You look at it first!' She was very angry. There didn't seem to be any reason for such anger, but there it was, and she was just waiting for me to say one more thing before she could really get going.
Foolishly, I became seized with a sense that some injustice was being committed here. What the hell had I done anyway? I tried to tell her that I didn't mean that we automatically sent competitions to Members at all, only that it was they who sent them out most of the time, these days. But that subject was instantly forgotten, because Boss then accused me of being rude to her. 'What?' I said, 'You can't mean now, it was you who snapped at me!'
Then she did something I've never seen her do before. She swept her arm across the bench, knocking the date stamp and stapler flying, threw some envelopes on the floor, and got up and kicked her chair. She said, 'I'm not doing the mail! That's it! It doesn't get done!' and pushed her chair violently and haphazardly back into her office. I got up and walked over.
'When have I been rude to you? I'm not rude to you!'
'You are!' she shouted. 'You're just like all the rest!'
What the hell did THAT mean? And did I say she shouted? Well next thing she redefined the word 'shouting' by REALLY shouting, when I, with a very white face (I was feeling pretty sick by this stage, I'll admit) pointed out, 'You are so ANGRY.'
'Of course I'm angry! Who can blame me for being angry! After YEARS of university and they got me working as a mail lackey!'
'But that's not my fault!' I said, with some emotion. Was it really my fault? How the hell could that be my fault?
It was really full on, man. It was insane and it made me feel sick. My nerves don't stand up very well to this sort of stuff. I'm just not cut out for it. Not cut out for it, eh? Well, Boss has the answer for that! At one stage of this madness, I had made some protest and she said, 'Well if you don't like it you know what you can do!' That means that if I don't like the *high-spirited* manner in which she behaves sometimes, I can quit working there and find another job. So what happens then? Some other poor bastard comes in and before very long is subjected to her arbitrary fits and tantrums.
No, I don't think I'll quit.

Some other things I forgot because it all happened so fast:
I say something about Boss's behaviour having a stressful impact, Boss shouts, 'I don't care! I don't care if you're stressed!'
Boss says she is stressed because she can't go away (on recreation leave) for more than two weeks because even after only two weeks she will come back to find things fucked up. (She didn't say "fucked up", but that's what she meant.)
Boss accuses me of wanting to make a career out of doing the mail. Because doing the mail is part of my job and I try to do it properly and not some half-assed monkey shit, I'm trying to make a career out of it, because Boss hates that mail shit and wants it out of her hair.

OK. I'll stop now. I've probably bored you to death (anybody still reading, that is), but I had to get this crazy shit out of my system. It really made me feel sick!
It was the shittiest day I've had in a LONG time.

3 comments:

J C said...

If you don't mind me asking, (I don't want to stress anyone out) how old is "Boss" and is she married?

Kapreles said...

Sounds to me she's a bit disappointed with the way her life turned out. She mentions going to university for years and now she's not able to have a carreer besides being Boss. Or perhaps she's just crazy. But at least it seems that you can talk to her (she mentioned not being able to go on recreation leave). I experienced something similar with Mister Retard, my *boss* but without the shouting. I wrote about that on my blog in the past. With him the problem is that he's just incompetent and a complete asshole. Last friday he tried to piss me off but I didn't spend a single second of my attention to it. He ceased any further attempts and I was happy with the way I handled it. Luckely I don't have to see him everyday because he and the other boss work every two days. Of course it's difficult to ignore a screaming maniac. I think it's a way for her to express her frustration with her inadequaty.

Stratu said...

JC: About 60, divorcee.

DEHUMANIZER: Yeah, I remember reading your stuff about your boss. I get the impression that your boss is that way all the time, so it's cool that you don't see him much. The thing with my boss is she is mostly cool, but like a time-bomb, sooner or later she goes off again. A real Jekyll and Hyde character.