My adventure takes place at my place of employment. In general, everyone gets along quite well. We do have a couple of abrasive personalities, but we're usually good at keeping each other in check.
In mid-June, our manager left for another job, leaving us all without a leader. As a result, our president/one of our owners & pharmacists has been spending a few mornings a week in our store, plus we've had a consultant coming two days a week for the past two months. What that actually boils down to is *very little* leadership. Very little leadership has led to opportunity for Ms. Curmudgeon to pick on the lowest gal on the totem pole for what seems like no apparent reason!
It started sort of subtly - a jab here or there. Yelling at me from across the store to answer the phone like I was one of her kids. Then she started deciding what parts of my job I was "allowed" to do. Then she berated me in front of a customer/patient. I calmly handled that situation as professionally as I could at the time. The following week I was sitting at my desk working; she came into my cubicle and not only asked me what I was doing, but what website I was on! (I wasn't on the Internet - my computer was on that web page that pops up when you open a new tab on Internet Explorer. I was doing paperwork.) That was absolutely the final straw for me. On the advice of my coworker, I went to our "boss," for lack of a better word. It took me about a week and a few texts to finally catch up with him, but we finally spoke. I took responsibility for my actions, but I made it clear that her actions were unacceptable. It was a good talk.
Guess what? Nothing changed! But guess what else? I didn't care anymore.
The weirdest thing happened. All of a sudden, she's started being her old self again! I've stopped trying to figure it out.
Maybe she just can't appreciate my sparkling personality...
