I wasn't looking forward to going to work because there was a high probability that today would be day one of officially being alone. In this field, in a group home of five, three staff is too many, one not enough and two perfect. Not only that but I'm new and easily confused/overwhelmed with all this crazy stuff. I get to work to find that no one is there because my co-worker had gone to drop two of the ladies off at a camp where they'll be for the rest of the week. Hallelujah! Three to one resident staff ratio is totally acceptable to me! I cleaned and did paperwork until the three remaining ladies got home from their vocational training workshops and then started the routine! Snacks, pills, showers, cleaning, laundry, dishes, documentation, dinner, pills, laundry, cleaning, bed! Yeahhhhhh! I did it. I did it. All by myself!
My co-worker was there for about an hour but was in the office doing paperwork {of which there is a surprising amount to do}, so I was totally alone. ;) I got them all in bed or in their rooms by 7:30, right on time, and plopped myself down to relax. In comes... the graveyard worker. From day one on the job I heard nothing but negative about her and from her. She's actually a really peppy, smily person but deceptively so since nothing but gross-feeling-ness comes from her. Our shifts only overlapped thirty minutes but I was so ready to leave after five minutes of her jabbering. Tonight she wasn't talking so much about how much she hates the job, residents, and staff, but more about the totally inappropriate details of every relationship she's ever had and the one she's currently in behind her boyfriend's back.
When it comes to people that are my equal, I do not stand for things like that. If I feel uncomfortable I'm going to ask you to stop talking. I'll walk away. I'll tactfully change the subject. I'm not a doormat. But when it comes to people in positions of power, those in charge of me, those that I need to impress.. I am not going to say a thing. You could get me fired! Or, even worse, make my life hell. That's what my other co-worker, Kay, has done to me, just because I'm new. This chick was driving me insane and making me feel so impossibly depressed and grossed out but I couldn't get up the nerve to tell her to shut up.
Point of the story:
I can do it. Work can be great. I'm hormonally challenged currently. She's awful. I need to stand up for myself. I think I need to egg her car tomorrow night to prove a point. That's a bad idea.
Nolite te bastardes carborundorum
