We have a small office, and everyone has worked there for a long time. As such, we’ve all developed habits to split the work load. For example, during our closing procedure, Coworker A always does Task A, Coworker B always does Task B, and I always do Task C. (A is the lowest on the scale in terms of job authority, B is the highest, and I’m in the middle.) We’ve all gotten very efficient at our respective tasks, so closing is done quickly and smoothly. They’re all equal in time and difficulty, so it’s not even like one task is easier or more desirable than the others.
Our boss is the newest person in the office (forced into management by the director who wanted her position open to put a family member there). She’s recently taken to extreme micro-managing, including putting on the calendar a month in advance exactly which minute each staff member is to take lunch and who is to do which closing task (among other things). She cycles us through all the closing tasks, claiming it’s to make sure we all know what to do for each task.
It’s my first night doing Task A. I do it in a different order than Coworker A. She would usually file each piece of paper after logging it. I opt to log all the pages and then file them at once. I reach from my computer and place each page on top of the filing cabinet as I finish entering the data. It’s barely been five minutes from when I’ve started.
Coworker A finishes Task B and stands there watching the other two of us from across the room. She then asks me: “Are you going to put that away?” as she points to any of the numerous items on the desk. Since I have my glasses on to work and she’s so far away, I ask her for simple clarification “Put what away?” My tone is completely neutral.
At this point, Coworker A completely LOSES it. She slams her fists onto the table and starts screaming. “I am so sick of you! Do your job! DO YOUR JOB! THIS IS YOUR JOB!”
I barely managed to squeak out “I’m still working” amid A’s tirade. I had been dealing with a lot of other, personal issues, so this immediately starts me hyperventilating, which only serves to egg Coworker A on. “Tears?! BULLSHIT! Don’t give me that! [Boss] has already yelled at you for not doing your job before! DO YOUR JOB! You think you can hide in the break room all day?! You didn’t even say ‘hi’ to me when I walked in! If you hate it here so much, just quit! Stop pushing your work off on me and DO YOUR DAMN JOB ALREADY!” She’s making such a scene that security actually comes running.
Meanwhile, Coworker B tells A she’s gone too far and is trying to subdue the situation. I go into the back room and barely manage to call my boss (who was out of the office) before having a complete panic attack. None of her accusations were true. I hadn’t even taken a break that day, our boss had never once spoke to me about my performance, and I did say ‘hi’ to my coworkers when we started the day.
I learned a few days later that Coworker A had been spending months gossiping to our new boss about ideas she had about how our office should be run. She was telling our boss how to schedule us and complaining about everyone’s work ethic and how we weren’t “friendly enough” if we didn’t greet her, ask how her weekend went, and were fully invested in hearing stories about her life. Most of her complaints our boss had let roll off her shoulders (after all, A had the least amount of authority out of anyone in the office. She was just part time and in the lowest pay grade with the lowest amount of responsibilities). However, our boss had set up the lunch schedule and alternating closing tasks in an attempt to appease her somewhat and get A off of her back. Meaning, A had been gossiping and backstabbing the whole staff in an attempt to manipulate our boss to run the office how A wanted. Never once, even during the day in question, did A ever just talk to me or my coworkers about anything.
So when A saw that Coworker B and I (and the other part timers) weren’t doing tasks exactly how A saw fit, she had a complete melt down and took it out on me.
Coworker A only got written up for her actions since it was the first time she had ever done anything like this in the office.
The thing is, what A didn’t know, I had already accepted another position at a different company. Had she just controlled herself, I was going to put in my two weeks notice the next Monday (which I have since did).
