Mark Twain

Clothes make the man. Naked people have little or no influence on society.


Dorothy Parker

Ducking for apples - change one letter and it's the story of my life.


Bertrand Russell

There is much pleasure to be gained from useless knowledge.

Politico


2003-10-03 at 12:56 p.m.

Office politics, I know them well. I used to work as a receptionist in a government office and if that wasn't an unbridled pit of useless political intrigue, I don't know what is.

Well, I went to go pick up my paycheck at the university library today and discovered that I have been drawn into the office politics there, dammit. I had always hoped that I flew under the radar, that I was too minor to bother with, but no dice.

According to a co-worker, one of the evil slags I work with has been bad-mouthing me. Why? I have no idea. We're not in competition for anything, which is the usual catalyst for politics: people fanageling to get limited resources. We don't really even work together, she gets off her shift as mine starts. But, she's been telling people that I'm always late (I'm not), that I'm incompetent and have a bad attitude.

This is a rare occurance, playing politics for the sake of politics itself. I personally think she just likes to keep a hand in, you know, keep her claws sharp. I'm a good target. I'm not there during the day, so it's not like I can defend myself. I work alone, so there's no co-workers to say she's wrong. And I don't play the game. Ever. I may voice my displeasure about things from time to time, but I have never deliberately done anything to undermine a fellow staffperson or to raise my own position. I do believe that she's counting on me to keep quiet.

She's obviously never fucked with me before. I don't play politics, not because I can't, but because, frankly, I feel like a person does that sort of thing because they can't advance through good work and competence, thus, making me feel that, since I am competent, I don't need to play the game. But, now she's gone and pissed me off.

Let me tell you what happened to the last person who pissed me off. The woman who I replaced at the public library went to work at another library in a neighboring town. While there, she has spread rumors that my library has been unable to function without her, that we've begged her to come back and teach us how to use our computers because the staff (mainly me)is grossly incompetent.

Well, let's just say that about a week after that reached my ears, an article appeared in two local papers extolling the virtues of the staff at my library. My boss wrote about how we were all college educated (the other woman never graduated from high school)and were all computer geniuses. She even talked about how I teach computer classes for the community. Well, I know that went over real well with the evil lady, who was thoroughly embarassed and caught in her lie. So, now you see, that is how I play the game.

I don't know what I'll do to the evil slag at the university. Other than being mildly irritated at having my reputation smeared (I don't really care all that much because, as I have mentioned numerous times, I HATE THAT JOB), I'm almost ambivilent about the whole thing. It's really just the principal of the thing. People like her should not be allowed to get away with spreading their poison.

I'll have to think about a suitable punishment.

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