My charity case

I have been dying to comment on all of your posts on my previous entry, but haven’t gotten the chance to. Jen J – Jingle Bells on the flip flops were the first thing I thought of, too! Regarding the flip flops, my coworker did say something to FFG yesterday afternoon, and she apparently got all huffy and said, “I know what you’re talking about.” What??? She did take the flip flops home, though. Yes! Yes! Yes!

She did a few other things today that were dumb, however. First, I was discussing a certification application with my boss, when FFG comes in to tell us that the really bad singer girl was having her lesson again (I may have mentioned that there are some people taking lessons in the building who are really bad, and that you can hear them in our office a lot – there was one we actually complained to the building management about). Now, I know singer girl was probably really annoying, but it is completely inappropriate to interrupt people who are having a meeting to share such frivolous information.

Later today she came to me to let me know that someone had a signed timesheet in his mailbox, and she was concerned because she thought it should have been in my mailbox (I’m now the person who keeps track of these things in the office). Now a) if I were missing this guy’s timesheet I would have already gone after him for it, and b) what was she doing looking in his mailbox in the first place?

I went and talked to my boss about her again briefly this afternoon and asked him how appropriate it would be for me to give her guidance and/or advice on general office etiquette, behavior and that sort of thing. He kind of chuckled and said it would be fine, and I elaborated a little; I said that I really didn’t want to make this girl my project, but that a) she’s been driving me nuts with her constant questions and need for hand-holding on very simple tasks (he confirmed that she’s been driving a bunch of other people nuts, too) and b) regardless of how long she stays here, if she wants to keep a job anywhere else for the rest of her life it will not happen if she keeps acting like this.

I think I will take the evening to think about how to begin this conversation with her…probably tomorrow afternoon I will ask her to join me for coffee at one of the cafes down the street and go at it from a standpoint of "How are you feeling at the office? Are you comfortable? Are you confused about anything?" and go from there. My understanding is that she may not be working here for much longer, but I feel like I owe it to her as a compassionate human being.

Anyway, any suggestions on how to go about doing this (serious or not) would be appreciated – I’ll let you know how it goes!