Thursday, October 20, 2005

Is there a word for being scared of crazies?

If so, I think I'm it. Psychophobe, maybe?

So there's this lady at work, we'll call her Cybil, who I've always thought had some issues but she was always been cool w/ me, so we never had any problems. Until yesterday..

I walk into my office and see a card on my chair. "Oh how nice, someone got me a card," I thought. I open it, and there's a rose on the cover and a poem, and I don't read it, I just go right into the card. It's typed. It starts out about what a good attorney I am, and I'm like "Awe, how nice." BUT THEN, it turned into this crazy "I thought we were friends but now I know we're not" nonsense, where Cybil explains that I must think she's terrible at her job, and how it was over b/t her and me and I should talk to her supervisor if I have a problem w/ her job performance. WUH??

The whole thing was so bizarre and out of left field. First, even if I had said she did a crappy job (which I didn't), why would she write me a freak card with a freak poem on the front (The poem was about a friend who ripped out her heart) instead of talking to me about it like a normal person? And why would the point of the card be to tell me we're not friends, have a nice life, bridge burned. From a simple common sense perspective, I am not just someone she has to work with every day, but also someone with supervisory authority over her. I sat on her job interview panel, for goodness' sake! BAD MOVE, LADY! USE YOUR NOGGIN'!

The other thing is that the remark Cybil got SO offended over was SO minor and had nothing to do w/ her job performance! For the last couple weeks, I've been helping her argue for a raise based on a technicality in our office's union contract. Not merit - a technicality. She's not a union member, so we were trying to figure out how to get her the same raise. Again, the raise is based on a technical clause in a union contract and not at all on performance.

Well, the boss was adament that he wasn't going to give her the raise b/c she's not union, but then ultimatley changed his mind about it. So the day she got it, I congratulated her and asked her how the meeting went and what she said to change the boss's mind.. So she told me all about it, and I made A JOKE about all this nice stuff she had said to the boss during a staff meeting on a different day. I said all that brown-nosing must have paid off. JOKE. At the time, she laughed it off, said it wasn't like that and she was sincere about what she'd said to him. And then we moved onto other informal chit-chat. She did not halt the converation and say she took offense. We just kept chatting. Then the next morning I got the card. Since giving me the card, she has not said anything about it and has just been acting like the card thing never happened, which I also think is weird.

::SIGH:: So now I'm trying to figure out how to be diplomatic about the situation, even though my instinct is to stay the hell away from her because she's crazy and I'm afraid of crazy people. Obviously, I'm sorry that she took such offense to something that was intended as a joke, but I also think she's being hypersensitive and blowing the whole thing out of proportion. Additionally, I hate that she was so cowardly and wrote a freak note. I now truly have lost respect for her b/c of her total lack of social skills and common sense decision-making. I also can't shake the fact that she wrote a nasty card to her superior - why should I have to go kiss her butt after something like that? I should be sweating her for it!

I think by the end of today I'm going to tell her I'm sorry if my remark hurt her feelings, that wasn't my intent, and leave it at that.

8 comments:

Kat said...

if she attacks, hide behind hillary or catherine.

Randi@SowderingAbout said...

wow....that was kinda freaky!!!

Shawna said...

So this women. So hurt by your dumb comment...took time out of her valuable day to search for the PERFECT card to tell you...it's over? and then acted normal? Geesh!

Cladeedah said...

Oh, and she _typed it_ too, which means she sat w/ it for a while choosing just the right crazy words.

Housekeeper said...

If you decide to make nice make sure you have witnesses incase she goes OJ on your ass...save the card for the commitment hearing.

Randi@SowderingAbout said...

maybe you should bring her a teddy bear tomorrow....

yournamehere said...

At least it wasn't a singing telegram.

Shannon said...

I'm bad with being indirect. I would ask her why she did it and explain you didn't mean to offend her, yadda yadda. Does she know you helped her get a raise?

Aren't you packin' heat yet?