Update time! My trainer is gone, transferred to her new office. She cried when we said our goodbyes & we hugged several times. Even so, I’m relieved to see her go. Work was rocky the first few days without her there though, as far as our department getting stuff done & doing it in a timely fashion goes. Mondays be like that.

My other coworker, the one that needs babysitting, is really starting to come into her own a little bit though, which is amazing. She’d been there twice as long as I had & still didn’t know how to do the most basic tasks. Now when I see her doing the most basic tasks, I’m pleasantly flabbergasted & proud!

However, it hasn’t been easy. There’s one task I particularly despise. My trainer & I had been taking turns with it lately, but now that she’s gone, I was left holding the bag. So after my trainer was gone, I’d ask my other coworker if she wanted to do it & she’d always said no & that “it’s boring”. Well, that got old with me very quickly. So one day I just told her it’s her turn.

This despised task has a long & checkered history with me. I was employed in this job for one month when I was shown how to do the despised task once. Then, a little over two weeks later, I was told not only was I going to do the despised task by myself, but I was going to do the despised task every day from now on. It didn’t go well at all the first few times I did it, but it eventually became tolerable.

Additionally, our team lead has told me that she “should” be the one doing this despised task due to her status at work, but that she “can’t help herself” from doing the easier morning task that is actually what I was hired to do, just because she’s sooo good at this easier task. Sometimes she’ll screw me over by volunteering to do the despised task & changing her mind or only doing half of it & leaving the rest.

So the first day I told my other coworker she was going to do the despised task, she sloughed it off until our team lead noticed nobody was doing her job for her & rushed over to do it... halfway, asking me to finish it for her. Classic! I was pissed off, but not surprised. It kept me up that night stewing, not that I need help in that regard.

The next day I said to my coworker, “You’re doing the despised task & you’re starting right now.”

(!!!)

You guys, I have zero authority to be telling anyone what to do at my job. As of yesterday, I’ve been there exactly nine months—half the time my coworker has worked there. Not only that, but my coworker is also older than me (if it matters). She would have been well within her rights to tell me to **** off, but she didn’t. She tried to tell me the lead was going to do her job, & I was just like “Nah.”

...& you know what? My coworker not only did the despised task, but she completed the despised task. It did take her an hour to do 30 minutes’ worth of work, but she saw it through & finished it, which is more than I can say for some.

There’s so much more I want to write about work, but this post is already long enough, so it’ll have to wait until some other time. As a coworker in a different department says: “You can’t make this **** up.” Some days/hours/minutes/seconds are better than others, but it’s still the best job I’ve ever had. Scary, right? I’ve had some truly terrible jobs. That’s work for you.