Last Monday I met my new co-worker. I will refer to this person as a "Breath Of Fresh Air" or BOFA for short. Normally I get to choose the co-worker I get to share my work week with. I work Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and my flex partner will work half a day on Wednesday and all day Thurs and Fri. So, we overlap for 3 hours once a week. Wednesday was my favorite day of the week because I got to work with my partner and made my job even more fun. BOFA had the same position at another office and the job was eliminated, so BOFA had the chance to choose another office and bumped out Super-Sweet Angie. Totally fair and within all rights and if I really wanted to work, I may have done the same thing. So, it did suck that BOFA's boss let him go, and now I get to work with BOFA.
OK, so let's just say that BOFA's first 2 weeks have been a bit stressful for me.
Last night I had a nightmare about the jerky boys from Clovis West. I woke up and realized that here I am, a 36 year old woman, afraid of being bullied by my co-worker. What the heck. I'm not in high school anymore. I am the parent of a high school-er. This should really not bug me.
But it does.
And I ditched work Yesterday and the day before.
I had to come in today, and I threw up while I was getting ready. This sucks.
I have called human resources and my boss and they both said to document everything.
And then I need to confront BOFA directly and describe what is and is not appropriate. That also sucks.
If I couldn't tell BOFA not to touch my leg or call me "Hon" or not to violate my courtesy 3 foot bubble of protection directly to BOFA during an actual occurrence, how comfortable will I be when I have to bring it up just out of the blue when my boss is there and say "BTW, I don't want you to touch my leg above my knee, or call me "Hon" or "accidently" bump into me or stand within 3 feet of me. And you will have to stop shouting and pounding and ranting when you are in the same room as me. Please." Yep. I see a lot of puke in my future.
Luckily for me, BOFA won't come in until Thursday next week, and if I do it right, we won't work together again until the following Wednesday.
Get this. I arrived to work this morning and another co-worker stopped me in the parking lot and asked if "HE" will be here today. Lol I certainly hope not!
So, just to make things clear as I document this; the first day of work I came in expecting to work by myself, and BOFA was there. I introduced myself and was my usual super-friendly normal awesome self.
I showed BOFA around and introduced BOFA to the other co-workers. I was excited that BOFA came to me trained and seemed knowledgeable. Yay, less work for me and we might actually have a great year together. I could see the beginnings of a super partnership.
The first day things went ok. Everything was new to both of us. Lots of troubleshooting and just trying to get caught up with the pile of work waiting for us.
BOFA seemed energetic and happy to open up and share personal stories.
I tried to keep us on task, and discovered that BOFA can be loud and likes to pound when excited. It was hard to find a time to break in and bring focus back to the project.
The next two days were a little more of the same. I tried to run interference between BOFA and the other people we work with. Letting them know that I think BOFA will be great here and can really do the job. Because, I think BOFA is skilled at what we do and will be able to fix lots of computer stuff and keep every computer happy.
BOFA complained to me that he thought some of the staff didn't like him, and I tried to convince him it was just because they didn't know him yet and the first week is ALWAYS stressful and I was sure it was nothing personal. (but be sure that you don't take your kid into the staff lunchroom because it is off limits to children and you will get dirty looks if you violate that rule)
BOFA left at noon on Wednesday. (the secretary wanted me to make sure that BOFA didn't try to stay around for over time.)
I spent the weekend stressing out over my new partner. Then on Monday BOFA came in ranting about how an employee was rude to him on Friday and that he spent quite a while locked in the boss's office complaining about it. Bummer for the boss. BOFA then said "I'm gonna go off on the next person here who crosses me!" (Dave later told me that this is considered a terrorist threat)
Great, so now I have to deal with Angry BOFA all day.
He does like me though. How do I know this?
Because BOFA thought it would be a good idea to put his hand on my leg, above my knee. (yeah, he seriously did that.) Twice.
And, because HR told me to document it all, I will add that when we were in the office in front of the secretary's desk he "bumped" into me. Twice.
And walking out to lunch he called me "hon" and another time called me "sweetie." Seriously.Not.OK.
So, he caught the boss in the office and spent several minutes getting shouty and maybe a bit foamy and when we left for lunch I called back and let the secretary know that BOFA's shouty and foamy feelings may not reflect my own opinion. (I had to wait till I was driving and his car was in front of mine, so hopefully he couldn't hear me make the call.) And at that point I realized that maybe this transition wasn't going to be as easy as I thought.
Taekwondo was cancelled due to the smoke in the air from the SoCal fires, so I didn't get to work out any of my stress.
(note: Judy JUST called me {Friday Sep 4, at 10:14 am} to let me know BOFA is on his way in and ya know what??? I am all shakey and feel like puking again. Maybe I have the Fresh Air flu?)
Ok, so Tuesday was another day at work. I go in all happy and ready for a good day. Because that is how I go to work every day. BOFA has been in since 7:30 and is already upset about the coworkers. He spends the morning ranting and we get very little done and then around noon the secretary calls over the intercom to let BOFA know that his child is in the office and wont eat lunch.
So BOFA flies out of here and I take that chance to actually get some work done.
After a wile I head up to another office to take pics of the new people for HR. The bosses door is shut and the secretary says that BOFA is in another rage and I should hide.
Sooo, I go home for lunch and hide.
I stay longer than I should have, especially since I have what should have been a really yummy lunch waiting for me back in the lunch room.
I go back when I feel I can't reasonably stay home any longer and only have an hour and a half left of this guy for the day.
BOFA starts to explain what happened. Long story short, he told me he screamed at another coworker. In Front Of Other People. What????? He yelled at someone in public???? Oh.no.he.did.not.
Yes he did.
So, I went in the next day and had a chat with the boss. I told the boss that I can't work with BOFA anymore. Boss said I didn't have to come back till today, because BOFA won't be here on Friday. He said to document everything. I said I will hide in other offices when BOFA is here because I don't want to work with him anymore.
Then I went home and called HR.
And HR said to document it all so here it is.
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