September 4, 2012 12:57 am
THS Editorial: Nightmares on the Job
Everyone at some point has had a job that for some reason they can’t stand. Perhaps it was their coworkers, bosses, assignments, etc. but still day in and day out you come in, work, and try to be as pleasant as possible. You attempt to please everyone there and at the end of the day the only one who is unhappy is you.
This is unfortunately my current situation, dealing with a work environment that is extremely dysfunctional and disgruntling. First we have the notorious evil 80 year old waitress. I didn’t believe it when I heard about this before I started working there, I mean it’s not often that outside of movies we see pure unadulterated evil take the form of a 4ft 5 little old lady, but this woman has to be Satan’s mother. She literally hates humans and the world in general, but I suppose I’d be pretty disgruntled with the world if I was almost 100 and working as a waitress. Next we have the Bipolar Cook, you never know whether you’re going to get a tray of food to take out or yelled at. It doesn’t help that English isn’t his first language so when he yells it’s a hodgepodge of languages. Then you have the rest of the bad employees: the dynamic do nothing but get paid more than anyone else duo, the two high schoolers who talk to the adults like they’re stupid, and the rest of the do nothing gang. But it’s not only the people; the building and everything in and around is in a depressing state of disrepair and dysfunction, the pay isn’t distributed in a fair manner, etc. And all of the work falls on the ones who get paid the least (ex. me) but the worst part is the bad attitudes that the hard workers are getting thrown at them.
I’m someone who tries to be as nice as possible and help those who need it but after working at this job I learned that you can’t always be super nice otherwise you’ll become a doormat for users and abusers (and trust me there are a lot of them in this world). Sometimes you just have to say “no”, even to your coworkers because some abuse kindness. Think about it this way, if you always say yes and do all of their work for them are they still getting paid: “yes” and are you getting anything extra other than work: “probably not”.
Not to sound preachy, but in reality sometimes, often through trial and error we learn who we can help. It’s not wrong to want to help others and be as giving as possible, but at times you have to help yourself and give yourself a break. Weeding out the manipulators and users can be hard and take some time but when you are cautious when dealing with them, don’t feel bad when telling them “no” or standing up for yourself. Remember you’re not being paid to eat crow, and why do it for free when it definitely doesn’t taste good. So stand up for yourself in the workplace and life in general but remember to do it in a tactful and adult like manner. You’re a great person and will still be even if you tell someone “NO”.
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