The One With...

Everyone has had one. That one job that makes you question whether the whole world is actually horrible, evil and everything before that had been a lie.

I should've written this before, when I referenced it, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

My Job From Hell was recent, very recent. I was sent by the job centre to a small company in the heart of my hometown. It was temporary maternity cover, a breeze. The firm was family owned and pretty much family staffed, I was the only one not related to someone in some way, I think that was the first clue this wasn't going to be good. It wasn't a bad job work wise, I got my head down and got on with it, bit of basic accounts, filing, stuff I could do.

What I didn't bank on when starting was my colleague. She was a nasty piece of work, bitter and spiteful, ready to retire but not financially able. I initially tried to get on with her because that's the kind of person I am, I'd talk to a tree if there was no one about. However she didn't like me. On sight she wanted to get rid of me, I was too young apparently, naive and optimistic. She began a war to chip away at my self esteem and everything about me.
It started with little digs about my education and my degree "you'll never get anywhere with a journalism degree, university is worthless." I just sighed and carried on with my work thinking that she was just a rude woman with no "appropriate conversation" filter. After that it was just constant digs about how much better her children had gotten on than I had without university, so on and so forth. Along with those digs was the fun little "tips" about my weight, shaming me with "should you *really* be eating that?" pretty much every time I put a fork in my mouth.

Sadly whilst I was there my Nan died, she'd been suffering with Alzheimer's for a long while along with other illnesses so i was a long time coming but heartbreaking none the less. The colleague knew this as her mother and my grandmother had once lived in the same care home. Now this was the unveiling of her true colours, she was both malicious and crafty. She started saying awful things about poorly people but only when we were alone. She claimed that Alzheimer's was a disease "sluts" got and that it wasn't worth mourning someone with Alzheimer's as "they'd died long ago, the real part of them." Just typing it now sends a hot pain through my heart.

She was very money oriented, a trait that I just don't get. I was advised to "bag a rich man, quickly" and that she was very disappointed her daughter was with a broke and failed musician. The true extent was made known after I came back from the funeral, I was basically a tearful mess for a while, Nan and I were pretty close, she thought it was appropriate to say she wished her mother and mother in law would hurry up and die before they spent up all her inheritance. I have never wished harder for two people to find the joys of booze, gambling and male strippers quite as much as I did that day.

The cruelty continued but I figured "hey, I need a job so suck it up" but the final straw was yet to come. It's funny now I look back on it the last straw was trivial. She had been teaching me processes incorrectly from the start and had banned me from using "her" programme as it was "too difficult for me to understand" but she was leaving all the hard work to me and reveling in the fact I occasionally struggled. She'd sit at her desk chatting, shopping on eBay and once in a while doing a bit of stapling and all the while she'd be telling staff and customers(!) that I was crap at my job, useless and a "muppet" and implying I shouldn't be paid as I was doing nothing.

I started to see red and complained to the management, I gave them a detailed description of her antics and all I got in return was "well we could speak to her and give her a warning but then she'd get worse and you don't want that" On that bombshell I took an evening to reflect and the next day we came to the conclusion that it wasn't working out, loses should be cut and I should just walk away. I haven't felt relief like it. I told the manager in my exit interview that she wouldn't stop her behaviour and she'd bully my replacement right out of the door. He just replied, with a resigned sigh, "yes, we know"

That, my friends, was my job from hell. On paper it seems shorter and less awful but in person it felt like time had stopped and I truly dreaded ever going to work. I went back to the job centre to warn them what would happen to the next poor soul to walk through those doors and the advisor assured me that they'd never send anyone back. So far they've been true to their word. I found a mutual friend who knew the lady who's maternity I was covering, the lady is scared to go back due to the colleague. How sad is that?

Now, this isn't a call to a pity party. It wasn't the ideal employment but in one way I'm glad it happened. I don't take crap anymore, I feel stronger and more confident in myself and I'm even more determined to succeed. She may have thought she'd won forcing me out but she's the one stuck in a job she hates full of nothing but bitter words and a hateful soul. If that's winning then I'm happy to have lost.


p.s If you take anything from this blog, don't be bullied at work. An average person spends a third of their life at work and that is a heck of a lot of time to be sad, angry, upset and generally not thinking life is awesome. Seriously.