[lenjan]

I just got home from Milwaukee. Again. (Was there last weekend for my bday.) Big boss chartered a bus and various newsroom types and their SO's went to the Brewers game today.

We left this big honkin' parking lot in the middle of Eau Claire at 7 a.m. I got there about 6:45, stowed my lawn chair and took a seat on the bus.

At 7:55, Chris (jerk officemate) pulled in. There is an open seat next to me. He smiles weakly and walks on by.

It's a 4-hour drive; we got there in time to fire up the grill and do that good old-fashioned Wisconsin tradition, tailgating. I spent my time talking to our ex copy desk chief, who is from South Milwaukee (the last town I covered), and to the new guy, who I hadn't met before. He just started maybe a month ago. He brews his own beer, brought a cooler full, and was willing to share, which was lovely. :-D (With all due respect to the Miller family multibillion dollar fortune, they brew really crappy beer -- but oddly enough, it's all you can get at Miller Park. Whoda
guessed? )

Chris went and sat with Christena, who kindly tried to befriend me my first week and still doesn't seem to think ill of me. He pulled up a chair with his back to me. Christena tried to be friendly and wave me over to join them, but I figured that probably wasn't a plan.

From 7 a.m. to 8:30 p.m., he didn't say a word to me and made it plain he wasn't interested in doing so. If it were possible for him to do so, he would canonize the girl I replaced (she moved to the main office), and the fact that I am not her causes me to be lower than dirt, as far as I can tell. He talks smack about me to her behind my back and doesn't think I know (c'mon -- what kind of reporter would that make me?) but is too much of a sniveling coward to say anything to my face. After this, I smell open warfare on the horizon. You guys got any ideas??

Brad (the new guy with the great beer) asked if I was OK because I was being so quiet. I said something noncommital because my boss was sitting in front of me and I couldn't very well say, "I'm homesick as bloody h*ll and about to burst into tears and I want my apartment and my friends and my home and not to get on the stupid bus to a place that stresses me out beyond belief." But, didn't seem like a good thing for the guy who hired me to overhear.



Candy

[lenjan]

gee, lots of help everyone's been with this one

Last year sometime I started a pet peeve thread, which I should resurrect. One of my PC pet peeves is people who read without at least leaving a sentence saying they've read, and they don't really have anything to say, but would at least like to acknowledge my existence. It makes a difference.

CB

[Fuzzybear]

sorry hadn't seen this

MEGA GROWL AT THE HOSTILE COWORKERS!!!!!!

[sidony]

I've been trying to read on here all day. Yet people seem to think I should do some WORK when I'm at work. :-) But I finally saw your post. Can't say that I have any good suggestions though. But hostile coworkers definitely suck. Sometimes I go out of my way to be extra-friendly to the ones I don't like. Sounds ironic, but it often causes them to come around and be nicer to me. And ultimately that makes things easier at work....

Back to work!
Sidony

((((((Candybear)))))))))

[AmatureBombTech]

When I was at the 'bottom' I had (well still have) a woman in our HR department that wants me out of the place where I work like it's nobody's business. One day when I knew she had just finished a smack down job of talking behind my back, I calmly walked up and said,

"I may be the bottom of the totem pole around here, but without me, there is no one here to hold up the rest of company".

Then I smiled, winked and walked away confidently.

Well my heart was racing, I wanted to pick her up and throw her across the room, but I did it and it felt so guuuuuud!!!!

[okiedokie]

Nasty, petty co-workers are very draining. I feel for you.

I'm personally coming off a very bad work situation with some coworkers so I know how distressing it can be. Yesterday, it was so exhausting, I came home from work and took a 3 hour nap. Take good care of you!
Okie