One Reason to Hate My Job

[lydy]

A typical conversation with AJ (a student employee):

AJ: Is this wire to keep the glass from breaking?

Me: Not really. It's more to keep the glass from going all over the place if it gets broken. It also means that if you do break the glass, you still have to cut the wires to get through.

AJ: Sheesh. That's what I meant. Does this wire keep people from breaking the glass and getting in. You are too literal, some times.

Me: No, I just can't read minds. You asked me if it kept the glass from breaking, you didn't ask me if it prevented breaking and entering.

AJ: Well, that's what I _meant_. You know, does this keep somebody from breaking and getting inside.

Me: But that's not what you asked. You asked me if it kept the glass from breaking, which is a perfectly reasonable question. And I answered you, I told you that no, the primary use of the wire was not for strengthening the glass.

AJ: Straightening! Who said anything about straightening.

Me: Strengthening, AJ, strengthening.

AJ: Sheesh.

Comments

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

Sheesh. Swear to god I'll buy you a drink of your choice as soon as I get to Minneapolis. And by the way, you told me to call you on my cell as soon as I get in, but I don't seem to have your cell number. Want to send it by email?

MKK

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Do you think this would have been a less-frustrating conversation if you had shrugged and turned away after he said: "You are too literal, some times"?

K.

[lydy.livejournal.com]

Do you think this would have been a less-frustrating conversation if you had shrugged and turned away after he said: "You are too literal, some times"?

Oh, who knows? AJ and I have been up each other's noses since I first started this job. I kinda hired her more the first week on the job. This is my first and only job as a manager, and I have confirmed my long-held belief that I don't really much like telling people what to do.

AJ isn't really stupid. She is ignorant, but evidently the school system has worked very hard to keep her in that pristine state. What she is, though, is passive agressive. She's the only person I've ever met who could sulk louder than my sister Bethany. It doesn't help that I happen to be terrified of sulking. For the first two years or so of our relationship, AJ was constantly terrorizing me by getting into high dudgeons every time I asked her to do something she didn't want to do. Not only do I not like managing very much, but I was spectacularly bad at it.

I'm a better manager now, but AJ and I have patterns set that are hard to break. I find her anti-intellecutal, conservative, Republicanism a burden to my existence, and she finds my know-it-all condescending, dangerous, liberal views to be a threat to her existence. This is a girl who stomps out of the office in tears if she hears other people agreeing about a political view that she doesn't share. She was so offended by my lifestyle that she complained to HR about it.

She's a good worker. She's usually on time, she never calls in sick, she works quickly and accurately, and she's shown a huge amount of improvement over the last three years. The fact that I regularly want to strangle her doesn't change the fundamenntal fact that I need her. AJ needs the job, and I need AJ, so that's where it is.

I find it very weird to work with people half my age. I still think of myself as 20. And these girls are so straight! My god. I admit to having smoked dope and they stare at me in horror as if I were a saber-toothed tiger in a zoo.

[marykaykare.livejournal.com]

I find it very weird to work with people half my age. I still think of myself as 20. And these girls are so straight! My god. I admit to having smoked dope and they stare at me in horror as if I were a saber-toothed tiger in a zoo.

I'm reminded of the bookstore where I worked. I was definitely the oldest person there and they all thought I was tres dull. Then there was the night someone made a comment about going to an orgy as we were clocking out. I sighed and said, "Been there, done that." You should have seen their faces. Best laugh I had that week. I guess they thought I was born old and fat.

MKK