A Necklace and a Rant

At this minute, just about all the beaded jewellery that I've made that is not specifically more me is not under my roof. I suspect it's already artfully displayed for Amy's home sale.

Peg had admired this necklace a few weeks ago:

And even though she said she would have liked one the same, in the same colours, I didn't:

I debated holding it back for her, but again, I didn't, so if she likes it, she may have to fight for it (unlikely, really that combat will be necessary).

Work has been ... challenging again this week; not so much the actual Things I have to accomplish, but the personalities.

<RANT type="optional">

I have a colleague who has been at my company for a decade and a half, and is continually allowed to get away with essentially bullying everyone else with few consequences.

To be fair, her behaviour is bullying, but it doesn't always result in the actions she wants. She raises her voice while she plays her sad little story (no one cares about quality the way I do, no one else's projects come in on time like mine do, I'm excellent at estimates and no one else is), and because she's one of a group of people who have to sign off on various artefacts of all of our projects, we often spend far too long dutifully making nit-picky meaningless edits in exchange for her signature (this is where she does get her way).

People just laugh and shrug (if they're feeling generous or it's the weekend or they're not directly involved) or roll their eyes (if it's been played Yet Another Time and Damn It's Getting Old) or grumble and mutter under their breath (if they're in that meetimg or are being forced to jump through smoke rings), but no one really stands up to her. And no, I'm not considering a pissing contest with her; for one, we'd both be soiled by the experience, and she'd shout louder and with more practised vitriol than I could or ever would use, and whatever the outcome, she'd shape it into corroborating evidence for her perspective.

She is on my team which makes for interesting dynamics. My mandate is facilitator, roadblock-clearer, and buffer for my team, and in return I hope for mutual cooperation and respect among the team members.

Fat chance.

In a fit of temper in large part due to her pathological inability to accept and deal with change in any way other than to spit and hiss and in an attempt to destabilize everyone around her in order to bring them down to her level of fear and uncertainty, she had a full-on hissy fit (directed in large part but not entirely, and not in a personal way, at me) in a meeting (yes, others were present) on Thursday, and stormed out afterwards.

After percolating for a day (no, I'm hardly impulsive when it comes to difficult situations), I decided to appeal to her better side, the one that can set aside personal fears and act in a positive manner for the benefit of the team, and ask her to help foster better team unity blah blah blah. Since he knows her better than I do, and since he needs to be aware of her tendency to sabotage attitudes, I ran my plan past our boss.

He said that (a) she would not take it well (I figured as much), and most importantly, (b) that it would have no effect.

Awesome.

So unless I actually request that she be removed from my team, making me the person on record for providing her with consequences for her behaviour (and I'm not yet comfortable with that drastic a step), I get to play pacifier for someone who refuses to grow up.

Again and again.

Oh joy.

</RANT>

On the other hand, it's Saturday and I can still taste the excellent meal I had last night.