Yesterday I was kind enough to do my best to keep my mouth shut. When I get irritated, angry, hot-tempered, for no reason whatsoever in the morning then I know it's going to be a day that I need to speak little and hear less. My reasoning behind this is that Golden Rule people tend to speak of and then completely ignore to the point of catastrophe.
So I kept my lips zipped shut as best I could and did a little whining to a coworker who I listen to when she needs the same type of spouting off the 'little things are getting to me' list. There are a lot of people who completely disregard the 'treat others as you wish to be treated' but in all honesty the biggest one is 'if you have nothing nice to say, say nothing' that gets me into real trouble. Anytime I am questioned about something I tend to snap as it is, on a day I have to exert harder pressure on that choke collar I keep on my demon.
We had someone out of the office due to illness yesterday and I had to go into their office to pull files. Anyway, lately I have been in the 'if I'm somewhere I'm not normally supposed to be then not only do I have reason but permission' type of attitude. In other words, you have no right to question my presence anywhere in the office, period, especially if you are not in a supervisory/managerial roll of any kind. Period.
I was questioned awhile back when cleaning off personal items someone no longer with us had completely filled the hard drive of (or just about, very literally) with personal photos, videos, etc and had to burn them onto discs and make sure they burned onto those discs by testing on my system. The laptop was in the 'empty cube' I covet and so I was in there working on it while the person that day using it was in meetings (they knew, it wasn't theirs so they didn't care). I got questioned 5 times, twice jokingly, about what I was doing in there, to the laptop, why, who told me, etc, by people who had no right to question me.
Let me tell you, this sort of thing gets old, but it continues to repeat itself. I was working on a laptop and on tech support with the company that provides our wireless cards for the sales people when they are out of the office, so they can use email and put orders in, etc. I got questioned while I was doing that and again, none of their business.
Three people tried to find out what I was doing in the office I had permission to be in yesterday and yes I did happen to snap at someone about it.
- "I'm doing my job."
- "I'm working."
- "Doing what I was asked to do."
- "No, I'm not (insert person's name here)."
It simply boggles my mind that people seem to be so nosey that they have to know what I'm doing, why I'm doing it and for how long I'll be doing it, when technically, not only are they nowhere in the heirarchy of supervision of my position but to be completely honest it isn't any of their business. Especially when I'm in an office that contains sensitive information and they don't work in the department that has access to that information.
I did my best not to snap at people but it's really hard when they tend to do stupid things and ask stupid questions that grate on my nerves. I feel that if I am somewhere doing an assignment they should just stop in, say hey, ask how I am, and move on. Instead of doing that I feel as if I'm being questioned by the Inquisition and that there isn't a right answer regardless of what I reply.
What are things that irritate you? Feel free to comment or trackback to here from a post of your own.
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