A huge part of my job right now is promoting an upcoming fundraiser for the university where I work.

There is a volunteer committee involved in the process. The two co-chairs are the most HORRENDOUS people I have ever met in my life. Many of the volunteers have quit because of them. They are snobs and elitists and have an air of entitlement about everything. They are acting as if this event is THEIR party to show THEIR friends how fabulous THEY are.

Part of my job is writing press releases. Two weeks ago, I sent out a press release about the event. The co-chairs don't understand PR and they decided we needed a 2ND press release focusing on some of the mundane details of the event. My boss decided we should agree to do it just to shut them up. As I was working on the second press release two days ago, I received a press release that one of the co-chairs had written. Then, the next day I received one that the other co-chair (her husband) had written. They were both poorly written. I went to my boss about it and she told me to just write my own press release because I write for the university; they don't. The co-chairs wanted something in particular mentioned in the press release and my boss said NO WAY and e-mailed to let them know her decision, so I did not put that particular thing in the press release.

The information the co-chairs provided me with was contradictory, poorly researched, sloppy and inaccurate. I spent all yesterday afternoon and all this morning trying to sort it out -- fact-checking, researching, correcting the spread sheets of information they had provided me with... basically fixing all of their mistakes. All they do is complicate things and waste everyone's time and then have tantrums when they don't get what they want when they want it. I was finally able to write an ACCURATE press release this afternoon. I e-mailed it to my boss and the two co-chairs.

A few moments later I received a rather lengthy, snarky response from one of the co-chairs and it included the following:

"I'm disappointed that the reference to *** was dropped. It seems so ungracious.

At this stage I no longer care about what is written. The event is 2 weeks away and there was no need for this to take so long. We were told we would have it last evening."

When I read her e-mail, I felt like my head was going to explode and I was shaking. Our entire department is being run ragged trying to get everything done and we are subjected to verbal abuse from this woman and her husband. Two of my colleagues and I have already filed reports with the HR department about this... that was the day that one of the co-chairs spent an hour shrieking and yelling at my boss in her office. It's SO unacceptable. This has been going on for a month and a 1/2... plus we have loads of other work to do. We're understaffed. My boss will not stand up to them. I think it's because she's on her way out. She's leaving in June.

I e-mailed my boss and told her that I couldn't respond to the e-mail I had received because I was too angry. I told her that I work for HER, not the volunteer co-chairs. I also told her that I don't tolerate being spoken to in a disrespectful manner in my personal life and I certainly will not tolerate it in a professional environment. I'm not putting up with it anymore. These people are rude, condescending, and act as if we're at odds with them. They act like we're they're party planners. This is SUPPOSED to be a fundraiser for our university and I am the person in charge of the public message the university sends out. These people are representing the university when they interact with the public... and they're not sending a positive message to anyone. They are going to create a public relations nightmare with their behaviour. I can't take it anymore. I'm going to throw a hissy-fit at one of them the next time one of them says something disrespectful to me or one of my co-workers. I don't have the authority to put them in their place, though. Only my boss does, and she won't do it. I am just SO fed up and ANGRY and IRRITATED. Am I over-reacting? I have to deal with these people for two more weeks and I don't know how I'm going to do it without losing my temper.