I saw some poll results on the news the other day about stress in the workplace. 35% of those surveyed cited a coworker as their main reason, the highest percentage of everything named. I can relate. I have Mister Congeniality, the loudest, most obnoxious person I've had to deal with in years. The thing that makes him really unbearable, besides his noise, is that he has no concept of himself. He honestly believes he's considerate and selfless--exactly the opposite of what he is. You can't joke with him or point out something he's done wrong because then he gets all pissy. He is 90% of the reason that I don't like going into work.
He was in a meeting last week where he was asked if we could provide a report. So he asked me if I could do it. I couldn't. It's fine till this point, but then he decided that I would spearhead finding out how we could get these reports. Gee, I wasn't at the meeting, I can't answer any questions anyone would have, but he's decided it's My Job and he'll be damned if he'll do it even though he was the one at the meeting and he is the one that can answer the questions.
I've tried not to complain about him on the blog because no one wants to hear about it, but I need advice. How do you deal with an obnoxious coworker who won't allow you to just ignore him? I seriously need some coping strategies because he makes work nearly unbearable.
In a complete change of subject, I have the rest of my revisions for Midnight Hour and it should only take a couple of days to do them. The most time consuming part is finding the right places to slide in a sentence or two. Sometimes the choice isn't obvious and it takes some reading and considering. Then once I choose, I have to smooth out the insertion so it reads seamlessly. I have one addition that's going to take reading through a lot of the book to find the perfect spot. Not all bad since I really need to make notes to help keep things straight for the next book.
I mentioned I was going to trade cars with my parents yesterday since mine was making noise, but I ran short on time so I drove mine and it ran normal. It was normal this morning too. Makes me wonder what it was that I heard on Monday. Anyway, I'm due for an oil change so I'll bring it in on Saturday and mention the noise. I'm sure, hundreds of dollars later, they'll tell me they couldn't find anything wrong. :-/
I keep meaning to mention this really cool commercial I've seen a few times. It's for Liberty Mutual and it shows these people doing a nice thing for someone else, and a third person seeing it and then doing something nice for someone else in this chain that circles around to the guy who starts it. I love this ad, but I don't know how effective it is since I have no idea what Liberty Mutual is trying to pitch. TBH, the only reason I even remember the company's name is because I saw it last night and made it a point to memorize it. I love good advertising, though.
Have y'all seen the latest Levi's ad? This guys steals a pair of jeans off a balcony and then his body keeps moving like the guy whose jeans he took. Like when his girlfriend pushes him out of the way of the TV, the thief moves as if he's been pushed too. Finally, tired of all this stuff, he returns the jeans just in time for the owner to go out, grab them and put them on. I'm really impressed with this series of ads. I should try to find out who the agency is that created them. (It's that ad major background rearing its head! I like to see who's doing work I think is good and I'm not sure why since I have no plans of putting together a portfolio and applying at any of these places--no matter what I threaten after hearing bad radio ads. ;-)
