Difficult People In the Work Place

“If it’s never our fault, we can’t take responsibility for it. If we can’t take responsibility for it, we’ll always be its victim.”
~Richard Bach

The work place can be a  petri dish for stress. The other day I was given an assignment that would require me to have interaction with someone who is very abrassive. 

“Do you have a moment? I have a few questions.” I previously attempted to connect with her by phone and email, but she never returned my messages. It was time to pay her a visit. 

“Not really.” she answered with an edge, “Well go ahead, what do you need?”

I focused on the task at hand and I reminded myself not to take her tone personally. As I asked questions, her answers were ambiguous and not very helpful.  With each follow-up question, she raised her voice and was clearly agitated.

Some years ago I was in this woman’s cubicle and a similar thing occurred, only that time I didn’t say anything, I just left feeling bad. Instead of following up with her, I found someone else who had a good disposition and was happy to assist. For several years I didn’t have to interface with her again, until recently.

Procrastination—The Precursor to Home Repair Emergencies

"I'm going to stop putting things off, starting tomorrow!" ~Sam Levenson.

Crescent Wrench

I keep procrastinating replacing the filter to my refrigerator’s ice maker. I have one of those old refrigerators where the filter is not conveniently located inside the refrigerator. Instead, you have to pull out the refrigerator and access it from behind. There’s a valve in the copper tubing so that you can close the water supply going into the filter before you try disconnecting the tubing from the filter. Otherwise, you have water spraying everywhere.

My valve is broken so I must go outside the house to shut off the water supply coming into the house. You do this by turning the main water shutoff valve’s knob (with a wrench or other tool) into the closed position. Basically turning it 90 degrees from its current open position.

A few weeks ago when I went to purchase a replacement filter, I could no longer find the filter similar to the one I have. We are seeing a lot more of this kind of situation known as Component Obsolescence.  

Dating— The Wolf who Hides Behind God

“Man is not what he thinks he is, he is what he hides.” ― André Malraux

When I think of entrapment, I am reminded how often we single women (with children or not) may fall erroneously for a wolf….uh….man…..hiding behind the cloak of a Godly man.

A few years back when I initially joined an Internet dating site, I met a guy who was extremely helpful by emailing me tips and assistance for managing my new profile. I must credit him for informing me that unbeknownst to me, my real name was revealed on my emails. He advised me to use a bogus name when setting up my email.