Work Drama in 2014

So after a fairly unpleasant redundancy and a large bout of unemployment I’m now working for a start up company.

This is my first time working for a start up!

I was fairly excited because I get to use my brand new qualification and I get to move away from IT. It’s a program mentoring young adults who are at risk of long term unemployment. Sounds cool right? It mostly is.

The young adults who engage in the program are really cool and it’s great being part of their journey of personal growth. The young adults who don’t engage are a pain. They book appointments then don’t show up, don’t answer calls, send rude text messages. Generally act like jerks. Thankfully I’ve only had a handful of those. Some of the stories just break your heart.

My co-workers are driving me crazy though. I’m acutely aware that the majority of the problem I’m having with them is my own doing and sensitivity. I have too much time on my hands and spend it dwelling on these problems. They’re really irritating me though!

S is a person who comes across as really nice but once you get to know her she’s actually not a nice person at all. It’s all a front. If you say good morning, how was your weekend she will talk about her weekend in great detail for a good 20 mins. Not once has she ever asked me how my weekend has been. At the end of the week when everyone else says goodbye, have a nice weekend all she says is goodbye. You can just see there’s no care or interest from her unless it’s about her. She ALWAYS finds the negative in any situation too. I came into work happy because I’d had a call about enrolling in another course and I could use my work hours as work placement experience. The only comment she made was oh but we don’t do case management here so not sure that would work. She never makes a positive comment, she only has negative things to say.

N is super nice like 95% of the time. He’s worked with S in the past for many years and I think they’re close friends outside of work. They’re super clicky. I actually like him a lot more than S because he’s way more approachable and supportive. However at a working lunch last week we were talking about holding a social event and I said that sounds great, we can even do some get to know you games. He immediately says I’m going to stop you right there and respectfully disagree with you. I think it’s important we treat these young adults like the adults they are, not children, and not force them into games. I was stunned so I kept quiet. Then once the conversation had moved on I casually mentioned how we had played this cool game at my sisters engagement party. Everyone had been given a name card and on the back was an obscure fact about them. Mine was “blows a lot of whistles”. Anyway, when we came up to one another to talk we asked each other about the fact and I had to explain I’m a professional netball umpire. It generated conversation in an easy, fun way with people I’d never met before. Something like that (a get to know you game) could be fun for our young adults. Everyone agreed and the conversation moved on. Then later in the office I also mentioned another get to know you game I’d played at a singles event where we were all given a card and we had to find our match, then you put your names down to win the door prize. It’s been a few days since that happened and it’s itching away irritating me. Why was his first reaction to assume I was wanting to treat them like children instead of adults? Why can’t he be supportive and ask further questions like what did you have in mind before making a judgement? I’ve participated in adult education classes, corporate inductions, corporate events, corporate training sessions and in each and every one I’ve played get to know you games and I’m an adult! Is he just ignorant? Why couldn’t he give me the benefit of the doubt? Why did he assume my intentions? I’m really irritated!

P is S’s husband. Apparently they’ve worked together before. They met through work. He’s quit his job and joined our start up as our team leader. Well I think he is our team leader. He has a different title to us and seems to be taking charge of a lot of stuff. I asked our boss, the director, what his role would be and she replied she’d let me know. That was three weeks ago. She hasn’t bothered to let me know. He seems nice but he immediately started making comments, without context, that S has said to me before. So they’re talking about me behind my back. Which I understand, they’re husband and wife, but it’s super unprofessional. We were in the car together for our first appointment together and he says remember it’s not a counselling session, which S says to me all the time. S seems to think because I got a Diploma in Counselling that I counsel people instead of my actual job. Thing is to actually counsel people I’d need a degree. The Counselling Diploma is just Youth, Mental, Drug & Alcohol Diploma all rolled into one with a few units on advanced communication skills. P got under my skin today though. He’s booked the social event for Monday evening from 4 - 6. I told him I can’t attend because I work Monday evenings. He goes what time do you start, I said 6. He said OK cool you can attend from 4 till 5 then right? Like yeah P I’ll just do a 14hr work day with no break to change or eat in between jobs. Cool. Jerk. Then today he asked me how many new cases I could take, I said 4 he gave me 7. He said S has a full case load so I’ll have to take them. When I asked how many cases S had he couldn’t answer. Then when I said I was leaving early because I was working too many hours he says well we’re just going to get even busier so.... So what P? Are you going to pay me for the extra hours? No? OK, then I’m not working for free.

I spent the weekend applying for new jobs. I don’t think I like working for startups.