Ohmigod OhMyGod OHMYGOD NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
Not Evil Obo!!!
At work today, for Day Two (more properly, Half-Day Two, since I
left at noon) I saw someone I knew from my last job, standing there in the
courtyard smoking. Unfortunately, if I'd had to name the top three people on my
list of Coworkers I'd Rather Never See Again, his name would be in all three
slots.
I should have known he'd be there. After all, why else would
that stairway always smell like pipe smoke? After all, lots of people smoke pipes,
but most of them wash their clothes occasionally.
This guy took a
severe dislike to me at the last job. Apparently he thought I was an arrogant
little bitch. Obviously, I think I'm properly humble -- I admit to making mistakes
all the time and freely apologize when I know I'm wrong -- but others have
complained, so there's likely a grain of truth there. At the very least, I have
mannerisms that can occasionally be interpreted as arrogant. (Is that self-
delusional or what?) (See? Properly humble.) (And proud of it!) But what do you
generally do when you find a coworker irritating? You shut up and do what you have
to do to work with them, and avoid unnecessary contact, that's what. You don't
send them nasty emails every morning, or scream at them. And, I repeat, to project
a professional image, you change clothes daily and wash them
occasionally.
I didn't get him fired though, didn't even file a
formal complaint. His behavior was erratic enough, and obvious enough, that I
didn't have to. And now he's there at the new job. With luck, this time he'll
avoid me as thoroughly as I'll be trying to avoid him. And if not, the company has
a very stringent policy against harassment, stalking, weapons, violence, and any
other scary behavior you can think of. I don't actually wish him harm; I just wish
him far, far away from me, so I won't go near him if I can help
it.
But on the way out, I met two former coworkers from an even
earlier job whom I was delighted to see again -- technical whizzes, both of them,
and extremely sweet guys, to boot. Now if Evil Obo (Obo's not his real name but
it's got the same letters and a similar pattern) picks on me, I feel like there's
someone in my corner. And if he tried to spread evil rumors, there's someone
around who knows better.