Wednesday, April 11, 2012

Arrive early, leave late

That's probably one of my pet peeves about being in an entry-level position.
You're usually hired in batches - whole bunch of you start out together, and in some ways that's pretty awesome. At least you've got work buddies by default.

But then comes the rivalry.

From what I hear from friends, it seems like at some places, they do this on purpose. Some kind of 'survival of the fittest' thing. But lucky for me, I haven't encountered any such thing at my workplace. Until now.

We're in a meeting where a bunch of us hired at the same time are involved, along with a few more senior colleagues. And I'm not sure if one of them is just trying to be humourous but falling flat, or just being a plain snide bitch. She makes lame jokes that sometimes sound like thinly veiled insults.

Ever since I changed department and therefore would have another hire from my batch as a direct comparison, I knew this was going to happen eventually - I just didn't know who would say it.
"The people in your department are always so busy! They all work very late. I see you around all the time when I stay late at work...," the lame or possibly bitchy woman says to the other girl from my department,"but you...," she looks at me,"I never seem to see you. How come you don't stay late?" She gives me this look and says it in a way that the next line is obviously hanging in the air, unsaid. "You're lazy and a pain in the ass for giving me more work to do a couple of months ago. Just you wait until I get a chance to give you a bad review."

I felt like saying, "Because I'm efficient and you're a stupid cow."
Okay I don't think cows are stupid...I just like the way that insult sounds.
And also you're not my boss: you have no say in my review.
And also don't try to induce some kind of rivalry between me and the other girl - she's a nice person!

I settled for giving her my best ditzy look.
Dammit. Why can't I ever think of a smart comeback that nobody will realise is mean/cutting/youshouldcurlupinalittleballandcryinshameformessingwithme, except the person the comeback was intended for?




No comments:

Post a Comment