Can't Take It Anymore

“Why didn’t you come to me sooner?” is the question that lots of people and bosses in the past have asked me when a crisis is looming. By the time I bring it to their attention, the crisis is usually past the point of no return. “Why?” Here’s why: 1) I try to solve the problem myself, 2) Mentioning a problem can backfire, 3) The other person may resent you for asking for help, and 4) Likely they couldn’t do a damn thing about it even if they wanted to.

Once I reach the point where I feel a situation is basically hopeless, I just shut down completely and let the chips fall where they may. That is where I am right now with my job. I have managed thus far to barely pull off the façade of going with the flow, but after last week, I just don’t think I can do it anymore. I work with a complete ass who sits in the cube right across from me. We had a big blow out on Thursday, much to the entertainment of many cubemates sitting nearby. Essentially it was over the fact that, though I’m the senior writer, he is constantly checking over my work and telling me what he wants changed, even though we write completely different manuals. Well, I told him what he could do with his suggestions (ie, orders). “Why are you getting so defensive?” he yelled. And it went on from there, with me telling him his suggestions were wrong in the first place and showed him the email from Marketing that said so. Our voices were apparently raised enough decibels that I got congratulatory emails from people as far as 4 cubes back thanking me for telling him off.

Not a big deal in and of itself. The problem is the Perfect Storm that developed over the past year since my boss was fired. He had interviewed this prick and another coworker asked her former colleagues at the company he worked for what he was like as a coworker. These were the emails she got back: “He’s the young stupid we hired two years ago.” “He hates women.” “Please take this arrogant jerk off our hands.”

We went to my boss with this and he agreed not to hire the guy. But then HE got fired. So our other writer quit. That position had to be backfilled and our new boss promptly hired this prick. And yes, I did talk to him about the problem at my review. But all he cares about is retiring to his ranch in Texas in 2 years. Then he wants me to take his job as manager of the department, so any problems with this guy wouldn’t be a problem. BUT WHAT ABOUT THE NEXT 2 YEARS???

Plus, with the whole team gone but me, I now work with 3 right-wing dumbass men who spend all of Monday morning talking about Saturday’s football game and have Kenny Ches/ney ring tones on their phones, and think women are dumb and that I don’t deserve my position of Sr. Writer when they are Junior ones. So the 3 of them huddle up half the day whispering and talking shit about me, none will work with me, they diss me in meetings, and for my part, I just try to remain as invisible at my desk as possible and don’t speak to anyone unless spoken to.

It was not like this before, with the old doc team. We were all like family, and I still keep in touch with all of them.

On the 30th, we had RIFs due to a recent merger with another company, causing more stress. We also have anti-trust lawsuits up the ying-yang and a lot of bad press. Usually I have breathed a sigh of relief when I’ve dodged a RIF but not this time. Not this time.

Here is how low my morale has become: I walk down a different hallway to avoid them, I take my lunch break after they get back, I take my vaca on days with the most meetings, this week I’m packing up all my personal stuff from my desk, I have all but quit working so I’m really only a physical presence there 90% of the time and a work presence 10%, and MAYBE I will talk to my boss’s boss or HR about this condescending prick, if for no other reason than to cause him some grief.