Phew! It’s hot out there, but you’d probably noticed that already. Fortunately I work in a very well air-conditioned building so it is only when I walk out of work that I hit a wall of heat. It is with some relief that I am able to say that is all I have hit this week. I am *still* working for my head of unit and she has now come up with even more work for me to do. I think she sees herself as some kind of benefactor passing on her wisdom and worldly experience. I have been finishing off lots of the work that I have had to do of late but there are actually a couple of deadlines I am likely to miss because that particular work is of no interest to my head of unit. So I need to try and find some time today to at least get the work started and make sure I know what I need to do.
I managed to resist the urge to hit my head of unit when I had prepared a whole load of work and she just looked at it and said “You need to flag it” i.e. put those little coloured tag things on it. She couldn’t care less about the content, it’s all about presentation. Anyway, I replied “we’ve almost run out of the flags” and she just turned to me and said in a most superior tone “I hope I just misheard you. Sort it out!” My face must have looked like absolute thunder, not that my head of unit noticed, because someone else just looked at me and said to me “I’ll get some for you” and rushed off to find them. I really don’t appreciate being spoken to like I am her personal skivvy and we can’t even get the particular flags she likes from our stationery catalogue and the local Rymans has absolutely none in stock because we have already ransacked them for their stocks, but it is of no interest to her that we can’t actually get what she wants. “No” is not an answer!
The candidates for head of unit have still not been told the outcome of the interviews. Or at least, G, the woman I have been working with the last couple of weeks, hasn’t been told, which I guess could mean that she hasn’t got the job and they’re just waiting for the person they have selected to accept. Apparently our director has been unable to make eye contact with her for days, which doesn’t seem like a good sign. Oh please don’t let evil, bad tempered woman get it *wails*.
One of the things I have learnt from G though is to stand up to my head of unit a bit more. When H is being totally unreasonable and expecting me to work late just because she is very badly organised – or go to Rymans and buy some stationery (which it has to be said is not as bad as her trying to get various people to go to the supermarket and buy her fruit) – then I am kind of learning to challenge what she says more and to point out when she is asking things that are inappropriate. By the time she leaves I might even have learned how to say those things out loud and not just scream them in my own head. Actually, I have sometimes raised my hand and when given permission to speak have voiced an occasional objection. It was promptly dismissed, of course, but I like to think that one day I might be able to influence the choice of biscuits. *shouts* luxury biscuits not the basic selection! *looks all sheepish* Not that there’s anything wrong with bourbons or custard creams *whispers* I just like the chocolate and orange ones that are in foil...*voice fades away*
I’ll keep practicing.
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