Say Something...

**WARNING - MOSTLY SERIOUS DISCUSSION - AMUSE YOURSELVES ELSEWHERE**

Sorry for not updating this little corner of the net I like to call my own this week, but things have gotten in the way. It's been pretty busy at work, plus Wednesday was possibly the most excruciating day I experienced in my entire time there. I would've written about it sooner, but general tiredness and some really good TV got in the way... Heroes was good as always, the end of 24 was ok, it contained the perquisite obligatory explosions but couldn't save what was an otherwise ok-ish series. (Oh no, Jack invades another embassy and gets caught! And shouldn't CTU move house already, all the terrorists seem to know where it is... may as well set up a big red 'X' outside with 'Bomb here' written right next to it. And Jack has feelings! Maybe it's time he settled down and started his own sitcom or something)

Unfortunately all this quality programming has meant that my anger and annoyance on Wednesday has dissipated somewhat. That's not to say I'm not bothered by it anymore, but only time will tell on that one. I'm not sure how much detail I should divulge here, who knows how much trouble this could get me into some years down the track. So forgive me if I skimp on the details every now and then.

To put it shortly, it was a day where almost everything that could go wrong did so for the sake of going wrong. I didn't know it was possible to cop flak from so many sides in a single day, but that's pretty much what happened. Arguments over the pedantries of office procedure took up a lot of my day, and the worst part was that I knew it was something I couldn't win. The fact that I had been originally taught to do something in a fashion that was wrong to begin with did not help one bit.

Even after the morning session, it appeared my nemesis for the day had not finished with me and wished to prolong my torture for just a little more. I should say now that normally she is very easy to get along with, but there was no snapping her out of the deep foul trench of a mood she was in. Adversity and antagonism were her main objectives that day, and I just happened to be in the headlights.

The part that made it worse was not that she was dictating terms to me and overriding a lot of what I had been taught during the four to five months I was there, but that she clearly regarded her experience from other companies to be the main driving point behind her argument, and she did not attempt to withhold that piece of information. In fact, she used that argument at least 8 times during the day, in what is known as the broken record effect.

Her additional years of office experience also appeared to give her the belief that whatever I had to say had no real weighting whatsoever. It was as if she was dishing out a sternly worded lecture to a child. (Actually, her eldest child is only 3 or 4 years younger than myself, who knows what kind of transferal may have been at work there) There was no point arguing with someone who does not give you the respect of regarding your opinion, especially when it is met with such belittling a response.

Needless to say there was no way I could score any points in this argument without making things personal. That would have surely prolonged any agony for an infinite amount of time. I know that the trivialities of this argument may make no sense and indeed I do not come off completely faultless in this. I acknowledge the way things were done were not exactly optimal and that a change would have been on the cards eventually, but I still dispute the way in which this change occurred.

The timing of this sudden regime change could have been timed better. Whether she felt like handing me my arse on a platter just because she was in a bad mood and needed to take it out on the closest person or not is irrelevant. When change is forced upon us, in many circumstances we will defend our old ways, regardless of how stupid and wasteful they are. When change is implemented in a hostile manner (good god I'm back in 1st Year Organisational Behaviour, aka Mind Control 101), it is bound to meet resistance no matter what the change may be like, for better or for worse.

Hmm, after reading all that I may still be a little cheesed off at all of this. Fortunately the day ended at the same time it always did, and I got to reset the clock and start again the next day. I guess that's the good part, knowing that tomorrow it will wash away (fingers crossed) and things will be good again. I spoke to a friend the next day who knows a lot more than I do about all of this, and she commented that it was important that you did not let them get to you, that you do not let them see you crack under pressure. Another day faced, another lesson learned... I only hope that all future lessons will not be that tough to deal with.