Wednesday, May 5, 2010

So I Have This Friend....

So I have this friend... Ha! We all know when someone tells a story about a friend that it is really them. But not this time. This time it is really a friend. A friend who told me this story and wanted my opinion about the whole thing. She is upset and wanted to know how I would feel.

PERSONAL: "Suzy" is a 40 something, married, mother of 5. Lives in middle America, owns a home, eloped with her sweetheart. She has always been a "good girl" with a secret wild side. (See why we get along?) She doesn't blog, Facebook or Tweet so she will never know that I wrote this. We have known each other since elementary school, and we talk about twice a year. We are still very close but life gets in the way of keeping better contact.

BACK STORY: Suzy works full time for a major non-profit that most of us have at least heard of, if not given money too. (I tell you this so that you try to have a connection with the story.) She heads a division that serves a certain purpose, to say it helps a certain group of people. Like I said she heads the division and of course she has a boss, we will call her "Broomhilda". She is Suzy's boss but she is also the boss is over many divisions. For anyone that works middle management (or something similar) you know that usually this person (Broomhilda) doesn't know exactly what it is you do but she knows that you need to do it and she keeps on your back about getting it done (usually while watching Hulu or Facebooking all day in her office). She likes to seem like she knows what is going on, but doesn't actually want to do the work associated with it. She likes to do things her way (without knowing the right way), and she likes to, more then anything, be right.

STORY: Suzy has a project that she has been working on for almost a year. It has taken about 60 hours a week (remember she works for a non-profit so she gets paid diddly) to research, and put together her report. This project is a joint effort and she has a project admin that she answers to, but that actually works for a major corporation, outside of her office. The job this past year has included going to major corporations that she works alongside and getting information from her contacts, putting together idea boards while following federal guidelines and international laws. When she turns in the report/project, Broomhilda decides that she doesn't agree/believe what is written and decides to take it into her own hands and call Suzy's project admin. Of course the project admin tells Broomhilda exactly what Suzy wrote in the report is correct. Broomhilda gets mad and still tries to prove Suzy wrong.

THE ISSUE: Suzy is livid, to put it mildly. She feels like Broomhilda went out of her way to try and prove her wrong. Broomhilda has nothing directly related to the project but said that she felt it needed to be done. Broomhilda has done this before. She enjoys proving people wrong. So yes, this is not the first time. Some of Suzy's co-workers feel like Suzy should not be upset and she should just go on with work and forget that it ever happened. The problem is that now Suzy feels like she has lost some credibility with the other company that she works with because Broomhilda had to nose in where she felt that she needed to be but was not needed to be. Got it?

I of course told her that she has a right to feel upset. I hate when my bosses feel the need to follow up with my state rep, even when they say that they know I am doing a good job and trust my judgement. I know some people just need to hear it for themselves but in this case I think Broomhilda was just going out of her way to make Suzy look like she did not know what she was doing. (I wish I could explain more but I know too much as it is...)

I do not know if Broomhilda was left at the alter by a man 30 years ago, or maybe she really longs to be Broomhilder and doesn't have the money to the the proper "procedure" finished. But whatever it is she is a mean person that enjoys seeing others fail. Did you ever see Wanted with James McAvoy, Morgan Freeman, Angelina Jolie? You remember Wes (James) and his awful boss? Well that is Broomhilda.

Maybe I have a problem with authority, but I think Suzy has a right to be mad. Hopping mad.

4 comments:

Sypher said...

its a job. You get paid money to do it. Who cares what broomhilda thinks. Can she fire suzie?

Miss Kendra said...

That is the problem. She can fire her! BTW it is a friend from Illinois.

CBalmanno said...

I loved the movie Wanted!

Miss Kendra said...

Me too!!!