6) Gloria
Gloria is the "lead" of the work group and has been with the department for a decade. By lead worker, she is second in command, just behind our supervisor. This means that she has some power in the work group, though the clique does not respect her, not in the slightest, and they consistently ignore her when she tells them damn near anything, whether she's giving them a directive or pretty much saying anything to them. She and I get along very well, being that we've known each other for the entire time she has worked for the department. We got along even before she became a lead worker. As of this writing, Gloria and I are a united front against Gurney and his clique and make no mistake, the clique is aware of it. There's no reason for us to hide the fact that we pretty much only communicate with each other. Because of Gloria's position as a lead worker, she is forced to talk and otherwise work with the clique. I don't have any power in the work group, so I can ignore the entire clique as I please and rest assured that I do not talk to anyone in the clique unless absolutely necessary. I'd prefer to maintain my sanity at all costs and not lose any IQ points in the process. The members of the clique are not as smart as they think they are.
Gloria is a good worker. She knows what she's doing. She's insightful. She is quite intelligent. In a manner of speaking, she is the antithesis of what Gurney and Kyra are. For as long as she has been with the department, Gloria has always had a black or white kind of relationship with the other workers throughout the department. You either like her or you can't stand her. There's really no gray area with her. The majority of the work group can't stand her. Gloria tends to be very direct with people and I suppose in doing so, she might inadvertently rub people the wrong way because of it. She has never been the type to mince words and the last thing she's going to do is sugarcoat things. As I said earlier, she's very smart and like me, she has an extensive vocabulary. Sometimes any intelligence displayed in that office is frowned upon. I am well aware of this and whenever I can, I try to speak to people using words that have at least three syllables in them.
So tragedy struck (definitely no pun intended) Gloria and her family just before the summer of 2024, when her only daughter and oldest of her two children was struck and killed by a drunk driver. I want to say that her daughter was pronounced dead at the scene and in an instant, she was gone. Understandably, Gloria was devastated. Not surprisingly, at least to me, she would end up taking an extensive amount of time off from work to recover and otherwise get some of the family's related affairs in order and even when she returned after a months-long hiatus, she came back to modified duty and had a reduced schedule. She went from working four days a week to just two and she had been relegated to desk duty. In the days after her daughter was killed (I was one of a few people who learned about Gloria's daughter before the entire department did), aside from me and few workers in the entire office, not many people offered Gloria any kind of condolences. When the work group was formally informed of what had happened, absolutely no one reached out to her to offer their support or well wishes. Not a one. The clique's true colors were clearly on full display. I eventually reached out to Gloria and offered my support, though I would tell her that given my comedic tendencies and need to make people laugh in most occasions, I had no idea how to approach her in a genuine way with regards to this situation. She understood and was still appreciative.
Just recently, it came out that in particular, Kyra had taken exception to Gloria's extended absence. Because Gloria was out and obviously not receiving any work, this was seen as being wholly unfair because Kyra, Gurney, Nessa, and one other person all received more work than they normally would have (or ever should have) and each one of them was reportedly upset that Gloria had been gone for as long as she was. Let's just not even try to consider the emotional toll and related pain that losing a child might have on a mother or parent in general. No, fuck all that. Gloria needed to get over her daughter dying faster than she did and get her ass back to work because life at work has to be fair at all times and workloads must remain equitable at all costs. Life circumstances and mental trauma, be damned. The clique had even taken exception to Gloria being on modified duty when she returned. Remember, Kyra strongly believes in fairness in every facet of life, especially when it comes to work distribution, and she was not going to remain quiet when it came to Gloria's absence and how her time away negatively impacted the work group, especially her.
Gloria continues to heal though I think that there's a good chance that she never fully gets over the loss of her only daughter. Gloria has resumed working her normal work schedule and is again maintaining a full workload. Now, rather than take a look inward and figure out where her own deficiencies might lie, Kyra will continue to blame Gloria's 2024 absence for her (Kyra's) abysmal work performance in 2025.
Kyra remains Gloria' biggest adversary, even though Kyra is one of the worst workers in the work group.
As it stands, I remain one of Gloria's strongest allies.
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