teddy_radiator | I Couldn't Make This Up and I'm A Hack For Chrissakes...

I sometimes feel like the world is too weird. I feel that way most of the time. Today it just went full-on Bozo, and I'm telling y'all because I have to tell someone and get it written down or it will implode in my head.

TheHubs™ and I work together, as you know. Sometimes, if we are working on a big job, we will work with other people from our company. There are two other people we work with a lot, Paul and Kelly. We've been working with them for at least the past 5 or 6 years, and have never had a problem with either of them. In fact, we have always had a good relationship with them. Kelly is one of those women who tends to think of herself as a lot more important than she really is (in reality she's just another paeon like us), and tends to make dramatic pronouncements - you know the type: "If things don't straighten up I'm going to just go home!" "I'll just quit if they don't do [fill in the blank]." I'm sure you have all worked with someone like her - a person who is basically okay, but needs to feel like she has more control over her life by making toothless threats and by telling you that this or that manager has a crush on her and is always making a pass at her.

Kelly's had a rough year - her daughter is quite ill - needs a heart transplant, in fact. We've always been as supportive as we can - contributing to her GoFundMe, filling in when Kelly had to take her to the doctor, etc. We don't mind. And she has always seemed in control, and for the most part pleasant.

And she, like us, has really been hit hard this Christmas. We just didn't have any work. We are all in the same boat regarding that. In fact, the two of us tend to bitch about things whenever we work together, such as the general indifference of our supervisor and the worry over finances. It's something we all are feeling right now. But, until today, if someone asked me, I would say we got on really well. Not best friends, but as work colleagues, I thought we were okay. Fuck me, but how wrong was I?

For the past two days, the four of us have been working on a reset. We finished a large portion of it yesterday, so we knew we had to stretch out our tasks today to get as much time on the books as we are allotted. Well, Paul, TheHubs™ and I finished our bits and pieces around 11:30, and we'd been discussing what we could do next.

One of the problems our company has with these resets is that people tend to not clean up after themselves and leave stuff in the aisles while we're working. You really can't help that; we are dragging boxes full of fixtures and fittings and it's obvious what we're doing, and the managers really don't seem all that bothered. Still, we try our best to keep things as together as we can. TheHubs™ does have a tendency to put stuff on the floor, and I end up reminding him to take up as little space as possible, but sometimes you can't.

Everything was done, and put away, and the floors were cleared. So the three of us said we'd tidy up and make sure all the cables were hidden.

So here's where it gets wierd. Yesterday, Kelly started working on a bit that should have taken about 4 hours tops. She started around 2pm and worked on it until almost 6pm, and was only halfway done. Okay, no big deal. It was a mess, and the reset was pretty extensive.

Around Noon, TheHubs™ went over to help her put some of the products on the fixtures. She had three big boxes full of products to put on the fixture, and she seemed absolutely fine with him packing out. Then he picked up a fixture and put it in place, thinking he was helping her out, and she snapped at him to stop, she was getting tired of him interfering and she was going to 'just leave and go home' if he didn't.

Okay, I honestly thought she was teasing at first, and then I realised - she's not kidding. She was spitting mad at him! I quietly called him over and said, "Babe, back off. She's upset with you." He looked puzzled, but walked away.

Kelly's still making her threats under her breath, and I felt a little sorry for TheHubs™. He was truly thinking he was doing her a favor. I sat down beside her, because I was waiting for the manager to bring me another document. I said, quite seriously, "He's just trying to help, you know."

She really went off then. "He just left all this crap in the floor. This is the reason we lose jobs. People like him leaving stuff all over the floor."

That stung me; you don't talk about my guy like that. I said, a little more emphatically, "He was trying to help you, Kelly."

She said, "I don't need any help. He should be doing his own work. All this other work needs to be done and y'all are just trying to hurrying me up. You're just standing around when there's tons of cleaning up to do."

She was really working herself into a state. I said, "I'm not trying to hurry anybody up. I'm just waiting on the manager to bring me a document."

She got really nasty. "You need to be cleaning. Why am I the only one cleaning up around here? It's filthy!"

I told her that I had been cleaning the sections I did, and she said, "No you haven't! I've been watching you."

I then told her that would be hard to do, since until today she had been working two aisles over from me on a large section and could not have possibly seen what I was doing, and I was not lying.

Then she really baffled me. "Well, you just try doing that section all by yourself!" (Actually Paul was helping her but he is a bit of a dodo. Still, they work together all the time, and I thought she was cool with him.

I just said, "I have been cleaning. I can't help that you haven't seen me doing it. But I'm not lying."

Then she really went spare. She said, "I know what you're trying to do! You're trying to make me leave early so you can finish this job and get extra hours!"

By now, I'm starting to think she's flipped her wig. I said, "What are you talking about?"

She just kind of laughed and said, "You'll figure it out."

I was just flommoxed by then. I said, "Kelly, I'm not trying to do anything. Just calm down."

She turned on me then, and said, "Don't you tell me what to do! You don't want to tell ME what to do!"

I just sat there for a minute, and said, "Kelly, I don't know what's going on, but I don't understand why you're acting like this. You don't even sound like yourself."

She stopped talking to me then. By now, I'm really upset. I've just been chewed out for trying to help, called a liar, and threatened.

I found TheHubs™, and told him what was going on. He texted our boss and told her that Kelly was behaving very strangely and got very aggressive, but not to contact her because we didn't want to be chewed out again. She thanked him for letting her know.

The three of us left her alone for the rest of the afternoon. It took her three more hours to finish the bit she was working on all by herself, and you could tell she was going as slow as absolutely possible. We all basically sat and twiddled our thumbs. There's only so much cleaning and straightening you can do. Finally she came up to me and said, in a perfectly normal voice, "I've finished, but there are some things to be ordered. I've marked them."

I thanked her, and went to mark down what she had said, and Paul told me she just walked out, no sign out, no goodbye, nothing. This is so unlike her I am still baffled by it all. I don't know what set her off, or why she jumped down my throat, or what is going on in her head, but I fucking hate being someone else's punching bag. It's true, she is under a lot of pressure, but I don't know why she had to take it out on me. It was just so irrational.

I'm telling y'all because I can't mention it anywhere else. I don't want to report her, but we sometimes have to work together. I'll be damned if I'm going to be the bad guy in this situation. All I did was defend TheHubs™, and suddenly I'm trying to take her job. Sheesh. Wonder what it's like to live a quiet life.