Losing My Cool at Work - Just Another Rant

I've been working very hard at controlling my temper at work, but I swear there are some days that dealing with stupid people is the biggest stresser in my life. No, dealing with stupid people IS the biggest stressor in my life. I've got 100 things going on in the morning including answering phone calls, leaving the office to sign people in, signing out keys, signing people in inside the office. Among my "responsibilities" in the morning is making sure that people who have worked here for months sign in correctly, something that does not, as far as I can tell, require a Einsteinian IQ and something that they have done every single day since they started here. But certain people still can't manage it unless someone holds their freakin' hand. At that point in the morning I don't have time to hold someone's hand. My supervisor, however, stood in the office and didn't do anything while I'm running around like a chicken with it's head chopped off. The phone rang as I was on my way out of the office and he says "I'm not going to answer it, because I'm no good at it." Later an employee stood outside the building waiting on me to sign in vehicles while not one, but two guards, one being my supervisor, stood inside the office ignoring the fact that he was there (the door has to be opened manually from the inside). For the first time in a week I nearly started throwing things. (I know that sounds ((and is)) terrible, but as I said, I'm working on it, one week is a HUGE thing for me at this moment in time.)

Anyway. >insert deep "woosa" style breath here<

I'm trying not to take a Xanax at the moment and thought writing this might help me calm down. It's all over, so there's no point in reacting now. Sorry for the rant. Thanks for hanging.

I'm lucky in that I work for myself, but I have subjected my wife to some rants recently. They're not directed at her, but she hears all my
frustrations.

I don't know that my rants are good or bad in and of themselves.

I'm not sure if you can say anything to your coworkers, but have you tried nicely and gently telling them that they should know how to do those things? Is there a way you can say it that gets the point across but in a professional manner? If signing in is really as easy as you make it sound, I don't understand why these adults are acting like kindergarteners. Maybe even saying something like, "I will show you how to do it again so that you don't need me every single time. It's very simple." or something like that. Tone can change the way something comes across. If you say it nicely, they should have no reason to reprimand you for it especially if you're busy.

Just curious, would you not be able to perform properly if you did take a Xanax? I've never taken one, so I don't know how they make one feel and act.

Not that you shouldn't try to speak up and make some necessary changes to procedure around there! The anger is kind of what speaks to me. You should be able to go to work and have a fairly decent and agreeable experience, at least IMO. At the very least, there shouldn't be a DAILY irritant for you to deal with!! Big hug and hang in there.

I really identified with your post! I often feel like that. I think part of the problem for me is that I am reluctant to ask for help. Like you, I will get annoyed that there are three people standing around and I'm the only one working my tail off.

I've been trying to speak up instead of letting resentment fester. It seems effective when I remember to do it...

I wish I could work for myself. Maybe someday. My mother usually hears most of my rants. She works with me, so she knows the people and situations around work, she just wasn’t here yet and I could feel myself ready to snap.
I don’t know if they’re good or bad, either. Half the time she gets mad at me, and half the time she’s laughing so hard by the time I’m done that I’m laughing, too, which is really helpful.



Signing in is simply filling out identical and well labeled sheets every day that have clearly marked spaces for printing your name, the date, start time, end time, hours worked and your signature. I can’t imagine that being confusing for more than a couple days… Or at all, if you can freakin’ read…

I’ve gotten in trouble in the recently for verbal altercations with my coworkers. In fact, that’s the only reason I’ve managed to get to a doctor. I’ve been asking for an appointment since my insurance started up in January, but it wasn’t until I got into a screaming match with a coworker that my mother and boss had a long conversation about medicating me so that I would be easier to work with. Half of the problem is my own temper, these people piss me off to no end. I had never imagined in 31 years that people could be as stupid as 99.9% of my coworkers are without the need for Velcro shoes and helmets. This kind of attitude towards my coworkers makes it very hard to keep the “who ties your shoes for you every day?” tone out of my voice. The other half (okay, probably not half) of my problem is that other people cannot seem to tell the difference between me talking to them, scolding them or yelling at them. And I promised my boss after the last time that I wouldn’t say anything to anyone about the way they do (or don’t do) their jobs.


In the past, I’ve had little to no problem functioning on Xanax, but I’ve never been on Seroquel before. I just started about 6 days ago and I don’t want to find out at work that the combination was gonna knock me out, so I was kind of nervous about mixing them. I also have a bit of an addictive personality and both of my parents families have problems with addiction, so I try to be careful about taking drugs when I like the way they make me feel, and I like Xanax… If that makes any sense at all?

The company we currently work for and the on-site boss we have are WAY out of their depth with this job, neither party had any idea what they were getting into. So, at least it seems that everything is a mess. In the last 8 months they’ve messed up everyone’s taxes, vacations and insurance cards and the day to day stuff is even worse. It literally took this company almost 2 years to realize that our particular plant is in a different time zone than the corporate offices.

I also always thought that going to work shouldn’t be this bad, but my mother keeps telling me that it will be this bad anywhere I go to work. Thanks much for making me feel not quite so spoiled about hating this job.


I think being annoyed is a perfectly reasonable response to that situation! (Throwing/slamming things around, not so much… )
I’m still afraid to speak up. I’ve been feeling better/more in control of my reactions to things/people since I’ve started taking my meds, but I’m not quite to the point that I trust myself to speak up without doing some damage.


Thank you for the responses!!!! It makes me feel like I'm not being quite so irrational.




And now, thanks to another mouth-breathing coworker, I'm about to find out what happens when you mix Xanax and Seroquel, 'cause I don't think I can work with her for another three hours without mouthing off. Why am I such a venomous b***h?

I have no solutions for you, but lordy can I sympathize!

No, dealing with stupid people IS the biggest stressor in my life.

Well, I can identify with this mindset. However, the problem is often me and my perception, not other people. I also find myself (at times but working on it and getting better) very angry at coworkers for not doing what I believe they should be doing like not having lengthy social conversations i.e. 30 plus min.(not on break) and laughing while others have tons of work(me!). They don't seem to care about others perceiving them as slackers or fake or unprofessional. In the meantime, I'm seething with rage and hate them for their incompetency , therefore causing a resentment, feeling ill because of anger and so on until the next offense. Back to the problem: Me. I end up ill internally and externally because of their choices. I wish I could change them. I can't. I do what I can. I have learned to speak up if necessary to let them know if their slacking off affects me. If it does not affect my duties, I try to ignore them and find my own comfort i.e. play soothing music in my office, take a break and get some air. My anger comes from my judgements of other people because I believe I can always do the job better than they can. This may or may not be true depending on the situation. However, bottom line is : why give them the satisfaction of knowing you are angry? Stay cool , pause, give yourself a hug and don't do everyone else's work. The more you take on that's not yours the more they take advantage of you. It's not worth the ulcer or poor health.

Hello sis, sorry to hear about this stress in your life. I don't know if this is good advice but we can change how we react to people and events. I'm sure over time you will be able to change this. Also if our expectation aren't met, we tend to get upset, frustrated, angry, etc.
Maybe change that expectation as much as it may seem simple to sign in and especially if some people have been doing it for months.

All the best sis.

I tend to forgive people their rants, as long as they are not directed at me. If it's something that bothers you, perhaps you could look into alternate ways of dealing with the stress in your life.

You are both quite right about changing the way I think about and my reactions to others and situations. It’s a VERY slow and sometimes disheartening process, but I keep trying. The phrase “not my circus, not my monkeys” has become something of a mantra for me, it may sound ridiculous, but it actually seems to be helping a bit (maybe because it’s so ridiculous). I haven’t found any helpful mantras for when someone else does something that I have to fix, or something that I get chewed out for, though, so if you’ve got something for that send it my way!

On a side note, even the corporate office got so fed up with trying to figure out the mess with the sign in sheets that they’ve requested that our boss not even send them in anymore. I feel (slightly) better that it’s not just me.