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The Working Girl Blog #13:
Woke up on the wrong side, or I'm mean today To see all of Bobbie's "Working Girl" blogs, click on this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/19261/working-girl-blogs |
You know that hackneyed old phrase, "waking up on the wrong side of the bed?" I don't know the etymology of the phrase, but I know what it means. And I think I did indeed wake up on the wrong side this morning.
I can't really put my finger on why except perhaps because of a lot of little things: I had a bad evening, ran out of chocolate mix this morning, some idiot cut me off just as I was driving out of my building, another idiot cut me off a minute later (though that's a common occurrence in Dupont Circle), and then same guy who's been parking in my new parking space took my spot again. I was preternaturally irritable and primed to get angry at any moment.
Though I didn't do it deliberately, I had dressed in a severe suit - black blazer, gray skirt and black heels. My subconsciousness empathizing with my consciousness perhaps?
Anyway, I had called in my three team members as soon as I got in, and then called in the three other teams in my group in close succession, and got a detailed status report from all of them. Looking back at it now, I wasn't happy that I did that.
The upshot of it was that everyone was on track, even though there were indeed rough spots, particularly in the screen formats and the documentation (most of my people's grammar is pretty bad, it seems - worse than mine, even), and I let them have it, lecturing them as they sat around my table and I held forth from my swivel chair.
After I had met with everyone, I then asked Sammi to come in, and she was able to manage my "condition" quite expertly - I suppose that's a sign of a very competent executive assistant: the ability to calm a boss down. My boss was lucky to have her. Anyway, with her taking the cue, she was able to steer me away from my snit, even while she was discussing her assignment with me.
Much more mellow, I asked Sammi a favor (making it super-clear that it was indeed a favor and not an order), and if she can find that sob that took my parking spot. She smiled at my seeming reluctance, nodded and left.
About ten or fifteen minutes later, some guy came over and, without knocking, came in and stood in front of my table, asking what I wanted.
I explained that the reason I asked him to come was because he inadvertently took my parking space. As I was explaining, he interrupted me in the middle and said that he'll find another parking space next time, and asked if that was it.
That got me going again and I let him have a piece of my mind.
Needless to say, he left my office very subdued.
As he passed the cubicle of one of my team-members, he said to the guy, "you were right." The guy sub-vocalized "I told you so." Clearly, they thought I couldn't hear, but I did.
You better believe it, buster.
I don't really know where this mood was coming from, except perhaps from last night - I didn't have a good night last night (you know how some little things set you off? Someone pushed one of my buttons, I guess.)
Later on, I heard that phrase I heard three weeks ago (I heard someone say "tiny terror" in the cafeteria as I was getting a bagel and a hot chocolate), and it put the morning in better perspective for me.
Whatever it was, it was totally inappropriate to take it out on my guys. It was like a bucket of water was dumped on me. Better cool it.
So I decided to stay in my office for a while, and see about calming down.
For the rest of the afternoon, my guys came in, in dribs and drabs, showing me the things that they've done. Deliberately, I looked for things I could praise them about, and just kept my comments about the mistakes minimal and to-the-point. I don't want to undo all the things I've accomplished with these guys. And besides, I want them to be cheerful. Hopefully, this'll be a step in recovering whatever ground I lost today.
Also, I don't want them thinking I'm PMSing or something.
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For Bobbie's stories in BCTS, click this link: http://bigclosetr.us/topshelf/book/14775/roberta-j-cabot
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Comments
I understand...
that they even have bad days, in Australia (to steal from "Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day").
Learning to recognize these things, and find ways keep it from getting in the way will come. Sounds like you have a gem of an admin assistant helping out! There ARE guys out there that just "take" assigned parking spots, figuring nobody'll complain... And, generally they're right... Some folks just don't care that there are assigned spaces, others, seem to KNOW they deserve a better space than the lottery assigns them. Personally, I USUALLY park a ways away from the entrance more often than not - I need the exercise.
Best to you, and thank you for keeping these going!
Ann
The Working Girl Blog #13: Woke up on the wrong side
Bobbie, you're a girl. Girls get to be mean for a week during the month. So enjoy being a girl.
May Your Light Forever Shine
May Your Light Forever Shine
Hmmmmmmm...
"Mean Week" must be a regional thing...
I'm loving these slice-of-life blogs of yours, Bobbie.
Things that might seem mundane to you but you tell them so well,
all the large & small differences between life pre and post-transition,
that some of us would love to experience but aren't ever likely to.
~~~hugs, Laika
What borders on stupidity?
Canada and Mexico.
.
I sorta see what you're saying.
One word might help keep things in perspective,however, especially for my wife and her six sisters: Endometriosis. Very painful...very discouraging...sorta takes the fun out of being a girl, yes?
She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Con grande amore e di affetto, Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
I, too, am really enjoying
reading your blog. I really find the day to day pretty interesting. Sorry you had a bad day! Hopefully tomorrow will be better. It sounds like you were making it up with your team by the end, and I'm sure they understand that everyone has bad days. You really have a gem of an admin! Make sure she knows it.
My wife had a day about like yours. While she hates Alison, I think she can see her shining through when she's having a bad day. Unrelated to her mood, my day was predictably depressing. That is always the case after a full day of contentment as Alison. But I figured out my cure a few months ago. A certain couple of Indigo Girls tunes to induce a half hour crying jag to get it out of my system. Then I'm ready to face the world for another couple of weeks as Al. A chat with a good friend doesn't hurt either, but that will have to wait for tomorrow.
Origin
http://www.knowyourphrase.com/phrase-meanings/get-up-on-wron...
E. Cobham Brewer, a writer who lived in 1870, published the book Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable. In it, he claims the saying "getting up on the wrong side of the bed" originated from an ancient superstition that getting out of bed with your left leg first was unlucky. Many Romans, including Augustus Caeser, were cautious when getting out of bed, making sure it was on the right side. This expression was usually used by saying, "You got out of bed the wrong way," or "You got out of bed with the left leg foremost." This developed into the idiom we know and use today.
In addition...
...we get the word sinister from the Latin wordsinistere, which as you note refers to "unlucky." The word means left-handed, which was considered to be unlucky or even evil. My mother grew up as a left-handed child in the depression, and as late as the 1930's, some schools, including hers, were still trying to change left-handed children into right-handed children. Some methods included tying the 'offending' hand behind one's back, or hitting the left hand when the child chose to do what came naturally. Sound familiar? My mother grew up resourceful and ambidextrous.
http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_origin_of_the_word_sin...
She was born for all the wrong reasons but grew up for all the right ones.
Con grande amore e di affetto, Andrea Lena
Love, Andrea Lena
Sinister...
I'm sinister! Muhahahahahaha!
No, not in that sense. The other one.
Yup, I'm a leftie. Mercifully, when I was growing up, schools had realised that there wasn't anything underhand about lefties, so I could learn to write with my 'proper' hand. However, as the school didn't have any left-handed scissors (in the UK at least, children's scissors have moulded handles that are 'handed') I learned to cut with my right hand. So I suppose I could theoretically draw and cut at the same time...
Similarly, because when I first started using PCs, corporate policies denied access to the Control Panel, I'm ambidextrous when it comes to certain electronic rodents.
However, being a leftie isn't too bad... after all, as the right hand side of the brain controls the left hand side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind :D
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!
Parking
Be grateful you have allocated spaces. Where I work (a County Council), although we have fairly generous sized car parks, there are still significantly more car users than spaces. Last year, you could reasonably expect to arrive by 9:30am and find one of the last few spaces. This year, you're lucky to find one by 9am - and some early birds start work at 7:30am to guarantee a space!
The powers that be are attempting to wean us onto more sustainable means of transport, and offer slight discounts on travel passes, as well as ensuring 10% of spaces are car share only before 10am, but that hasn't really helped. Hence each day a significant number of staff face the choice of either paying £4-£6/day to park in a nearby pay and display car park, parking in an unrestricted parking residential street about 10 minutes walk away, or play "Musical spaces" every 2 hours as they shuffle between nearby streets and a local supermarket (both with 2 hour restrictions - park for 2hrs, return prohibited within 2hrs).
And to make life even more fun, as one of our car parks is next door to the town centre, locals are demanding it be turned over for public use, and the work car park relocated to one of the existing pay and display car parks about 10 minutes walk away. Somehow I can't imagine that being successful, as the 6 deck multi storey is directly under one of our offices, is adjacent to Shire Hall, and about 1/4 spaces are reserved for councillors (deck A is short stay, deck C is car share, deck F is councillors, deck E is mixed councillors / heads of service / pool cars / general use, and decks B and D are general use). And the residents of the nearest unrestricted parking street are calling for restrictions - even though it's a wide road, there's a nice wide mud verge between the pavement and road, and although the houses have driveways many residents / visitors park on the verge anyway - so I can't imagine that being terribly successful either.
Then again, it could be worse. Coventry City Council has virtually no parking at all, so they probably either have to fork out for pay and display parking or play "musical spaces". Incidentally, while the Councillors can claim parking on expenses, those of us that actually work for the council aren't entitled to anything...
As the right side of the brain controls the left side of the body, then only left-handers are in their right mind!