Demon Mom On The Warpath…

Or, why is it that some people never grow out of the high school drama?

Demon Mom is on the warpath… and for once it’s not me she’s drawing her sword at. It’s in her place of work that she’s having battle. Now you should know this about my mother;  despite the unflattering nickname I gave her, she is an extremely diplomatic, genuinely kind person who generally tries her best to get along with everyone she has to work with. In all things considered, she is a perfect coworker, who doesn’t gossip, doesn’t stab people in the back, doesn’t take credit for other’s achievements, and doesn’t take advantage of her colleagues. Never mind some of her more irrational tendencies at home, in her place of work she is very professional.

She only expects one thing from her colleagues: maturity. As in, she wants them to treat her as she treats them. And now fate wants it that her colleagues are not exactly doing that.

• There is Big Bad Boss (BBB), who isn’t so much a bad boss as a clueless people manager with a knack for blunt remarks and angry emails, and a talent for creating long-standing feuds with high-up people.
• There is C., who goes to see another doctor every other week to get more sick leave, and occasionally comes to work for a day to make sure she still receives her wage.
• There is Teacherman, a high school teacher who wanted a change of scenery, but who is going back to teach because the atmosphere in the office is so bad.
• And there is Inga. Inga is an extremely perfectionist individual with a history of severe CFS and assorted psychiatric issues, who (as the stories go) got kicked out of two other places of work for being insufferable to her colleagues.

As I mentioned, Teacherman is leaving the office, so his hours will become available for either a new person, or one of the people already hired… which is exactly the issue. Who will get the hours? BBB wants Demon Mom to get the hours, because she is the only person in the office who doesn’t piss him off. Inga also wants the hours, because she wants a raise. As my mother has a better CV than Inga, she has a better chance of getting the hours… and this has sent Inga into a wild attack modus, intimidating phone calls included, to prevent Demon Mom from participating in the exam set up for the position.

If there is one thing you should not do with my mother, it’s trying to intimidate her. Inga wanted war? She will get it. Demon Mom is just sitting out the siege on this one though. Sooner or later, Inga will get booted out (as has happened twice before), and then she will have the victory anyway.

This whole soap series has been going on for a couple weeks now, and every evening my mom comes home from work I wonder how it is possible that people are so childish. She brings back stories of veritable temper tantrums, crying fits, gossip-mongering, and much more things you would think people leave behind in high school. 

Some people truly never grow up, it seems. Also, I am cheering for my mother in this one…