The "Real World"

Monday, March 21, 2011

It seems like every time I turn around something needs to be fixed. Or paid. Or dealt with. What is this?! My cable breaks -gotta buy a new one. Rent's due -pay up. My refrigerator isn't cold enough -must call super. Will there ever be a day when I can relax and I don't have to call someone to fix something? And you can never just call them once and give them a heads up; it always takes three or four times. And then you feel like a complete bitch because by the fourth time that you call you're so angry that you start using harsher language and speak in a very unfriendly tone. I didn't want to go there. Just do what you said you were going to do! If you said you would fix the oven on Monday, why is it Friday and still not fixed?!

This weekend I had to walk all the way uptown to argue with a very rude pharmacist about why I can only transfer my prescription once a month. I can't transfer the remainder in its entirety; I have to remember to do it each month. Which is great because that means I get to call both pharmacies and haggle with them three more times before my prescription is up.

My Kindle had officially kicked the bucket so I had to call customer service to request that they send me a new one. If you ever have problems with your Kindle I guarantee it will take you at least fifteen minutes to actually find the help number. You'd think with all the "customer service" and "help" links on their website it would be easier to locate a contact number. Companies nowadays are similar to generation Y: they want to decrease actual human interaction and instead do everything online. I looked everywhere for that damn number! When I finally found it I had to go through four or five menus to actually be able to speak to a representative. It seems as though they will do everything they can to avoid speaking to you in person. The same thing goes for doctor's offices, drug stores, restaurants, and the post office. No matter how many times I say "representative" the computer person insists that I punch in a series of numbers to help them "better assist me." However, when I finally do reach a live person, they just transfer me back over to someone else who puts me on hold, or to another set of prompts. I'm fed up.

Is this what being an adult is about?

Ok, alright, I'll say it

Thursday, March 17, 2011

I do feel bad, I do. I'm trying to be nice, and to get over my anal tendencies. I'm picking and choosing my battles. But I'm not exactly handling it very well. I've spent all day feeling angry at K. I really like my new apartment, and I know K doesn't mean any wrong, but I just feel as though I'm constantly being disrespected everyday. I've spoken to her and she really listens and I always feel better after, but it doesn't seem to change things.

One of the biggest problems is that I view my stuff as mine and her stuff as hers and she believes that whats hers is mine and whats mine is hers. I find it frustrating when I come home expecting food to be in the kitchen to make for dinner which has been eaten. Or dishes which have been in the sink for three days which make it more difficult for me to do my own dishes. The living room is still full of her stuff and we've been living there for two months. I know the only way anything is going to get done is if I do it, which means I've had to put her room together and that I'll have to clean the living room too. Right now it's simply functioning as her closet.

I had to get this off my chest, and I'm holding back a lot of anger and other minor insults which just build and build until I want to scream.

What sucks the most about this is that our friendship is slowly deteriorating and I know that none of it is on her side. I'm the one who is feeling angry and upset all the time. I really do feel as though I'm trying to give. I'm adjusting the way I live to accommodate her habits, but she isn't doing the same. I'm allowing myself to be walked all over because she's my friend. What she doesn't know is that my feelings of disrespect have caused me to avoid her. I don't want to be home if she's home because I'll just be angry. I am simply pulling away from her. Obviously, when the year is up I'll move out and hopefully that will help to mend things. I'm sure she doesn't even see things as broken.

Maybe the summer will help to mend things since we'll spend more time outside and away from home. Hopefully?

News on the job front

Monday, March 14, 2011

So things have been ticking at work but I've been hesitant to write about them due to either laziness or embarrassment but I've chosen to update you now.

About a month ago I had ordered lunch for an editor and his assistant. It's my job to keep track of what job each lunch gets billed to and generally I'll just ask the editor what they are working on so I know which job to write down. This editor (we'll call him "B") came to pick up his lunch from the front desk. I asked him what he was working on, and he said, "I don't know. I don't know job numbers." I said, "No, not the job number, just what job in general." As he was already half way down the hall he waved his hand at me and said, "I don't know, ask my assistant." Wow.

Now, if we have editors working here that are completely unaware of what they are working on, we have problems, but that obviously wasn't the case here. This guy was just being a "diva" as he has since been called. In the hours after the "incident" several people came up to me asking about it. I was told, "just don't talk to him," avoid him," and, "in the future, don't ask him anything." Apparently he had told almost the entire office that I had a bad attitude.

Now, I wasn't aware that it was inappropriate for me to ask his highness a question, but you can bet I never have since. The funny thing is, ever since the "incident" he had been extra nice to me, commenting on how much he liked my nail polish color choices and inquiring whether I spell my name with a J or a G.

A week or so after the "incident," my direct superior asked me to go have a drink with her after work. She asked me how I handled criticism. I was a bit shocked, but told her I would rather be given constructive criticism rather than continue to do my job poorly. She went on to tell me that the owner of the company had expressed concern because someone in the company had complained that I had a bad attitude. I was completely caught off-guard. I had thought for sure that she was going to tell me I had been doing the bills wrong or something. I went through a list of employees in my head and tried to figure out who could think that I was being mean or bitchy. I tend to wear a frown on my face sometimes so I thought maybe that was the culprit.

I told her I was completely surprised, that I thought I had a great relationship with most everyone there and that beyond that I really respected everyone there so if I was coming across that way, it was certainly unintentional. I asked her to tell me how I was behaving that was wrong and she couldn't tell me. She said she thought I was doing a great job and that she felt like she and I had a great relationship, to which I agreed. After continuing the conversation, it became clear that she really had no specific criticism to give me. She simply suggested that in the future if she saw me doing anything...unfriendly? she would let me know.

This was three weeks ago, and I have yet to be scolded.

Funny thing: this past Friday the same editor who was upset with me wrote a rather off-putting email to the owner and producers complaining about the way the company was run and saying that if it was not changed he would turn in his resignation on Monday (today). Well, apparently the owner simply said, "we don't need you anyway." He packed up his desk on Friday.

The entire company is happy that he is gone and there have been many "he got fired!" whispers; apparently I'm not the only person he has been unreasonable with.

So, lesson learned. Try to be friendly, and stay away from people your coworkers recommend staying away from.


Also: karma's a bitch.