Splitting Headache

In all my time at NABABNA, I don't think I remember wanting the week to be over as much as I do right now. Just as any night, tonight showed its positive and NEGATIVE aspects.

On a positive note, the head of the training department approached my boss again to say how much she enjoyed my presentation. She also told him today, "I know her schedule. I'm going to utilize her A LOT!" She also wanted me to apply for a supervisor position.

One of the other teams has an open supervisor position right now. A few people have inquired if I'm going to apply. I'm not. That's my personal choice at this time. The number one reason for not applying is the hours. As much as I can sometimes gripe about working nights, I do not want to work at 5:30 AM. I could probably handle a 10 AM to 7 PM shift, but I don't want the shift that is open. Plus, it would probably mean giving up Sunday night karaoke, something I am not prepared to do.

Another positive from my day was seeing a few more quality assurance scores come in and a couple of people did really well (a couple did not though - ugh!).

The headache comes from Negative Nelly. We have 20 bankers on our team and 19 of them are really happy people. Then there is Negative Nelly. Nelly likes to complain and likes to play victim. Nelly also feels everything should be handed to her on a plate.

She has the usual list of complaints that she tells EVERYONE in our call center. They range from, "I don't make enough money" to "My personal life sucks" to "Upper management obviously hates me and has it out for me". The only reason why upper management even knows her name is because she is so vocal in complaining that she's built herself a reputation.

Our team had three meetings tonight. Since we have a large team and we work the night shift, our bi-monthly team meetings are split into two groups, which causes two of the meetings. The other is a weekly feedback session with a 1/3 of the team. Nelly was in the last two meetings of my night.

At the first meeting, she chose to act as if the information we were discussing (talk time) was none of her concern. She doesn't pass this category, but I guess that means she doesn't have anything to learn. I don't understand her logic here. As our team was having a productive conversation about talk time, she put in her two cents after each person spoke.

During our team meeting, we were discussing quality assurance. Five times (in a period of ten minutes) questions were directed to me specifically (such as, "Beth, what do we do when...?"). As I was answering them, she interrupted me to give her answer. Now, when she gives her answer, which was unsolicited, she gives it with attitude. Imagine her shaking her head back and forth as if she was leading a gang into a war on the streets. I'm not trying to stereo-type here, but she has actually told people that's she's "ghetto". Now, she's not "ghetto", but I think she tries to fit the stereo-type as a defense mechanism.

At another point during the meeting, she interrupted another banker who was giving an answer. This may have been the moment I reached my tolerance point. I can handle her interrupting me and just brushing it off, but when she disrespects someone else who has a hard enough time speaking in front of a group, I get a little defensive of that person. I said firmly, "Nelly, could you please let Betty finish her sentence?"

You would have thought I had just killed her family from the look I got from Nelly.

Before I had said anything, there were three bankers and my boss watching in amazement and utter horror of the behaviors from Nelly during the meeting. There were only five bankers in the room with us. So, out of 7 people, 5 had a problem with her and one just doesn't show emotion. The other one was her.

After the meeting, one of the bankers walked up to me to say, "You are the most patient person I've ever met. I HATE it when people act like that."

My boss had a talk with her about a half hour after the meeting. Instead of trying to learn how to act appropriately at work, she sat in the meeting accusing him of wrong-doings and stating that I didn't have a right to answer the questions presented to me. She was also upset that she isn't getting the career counseling she wants. She's been offered numerous jobs in the company and pretty much burned every bridge she's been given.

My boss told her that she does not have the authority to act as the lead and that she needs to start respecting us or she's going to be written up for insubordination. She is extremely confrontational and we walk on tip-toes around her. It's not that we want to please her, but when she's upset, she makes the entire team feel uncomfortable.

On another note, my boss witnessed the entire meeting and knew she was out of line and that her claims were unfounded. He also witnessed her outburst at him yesterday and her attitude has been documented by two other supervisors. Complaints from other bankers have been made about her. There is a pattern here and it just might be time to do something more concrete about her attitude at work.

I guess I just needed to vant. I'm hoping Friday will be better around her.

4 Comments:

At 6:51 AM, Weary Hag thought...

This post made me feel right at home. Office work mixes so many personality types it's incredible. There's a test put out by, I think, John Deere Headquarters in Illinios. It's a workforce management test. Beth, you should suggest this test to the powers-that-be at your job! It's a simple personality alignment screen for all employees in each department. They sort out (for the supervisor) just what people to physically place next to other people in order to have a cohesive environment. It sounds to me like this test would place Negative Nelly somewhere out on the street selling hotdogs from a wagon. This would work well for her. Everyone expects the hotdog-hawker to be grumpy, opinionated and irritable.

I hope you have a better day today. Sounds like you work hard and much of what you do is at least recognized by those who count.

Love the way you write! You have a clear and comfortable way of saying exactly what you need to say. You never disappoint me.

Has anyone asked Nelly if she'd like a some cheese and crackers with her whine?

At 11:41 AM, The Lioness thought...

Beth, my exam has just been changed from the 1st April to the 16th, please tell me you can still change your vacation time or it will suck rock so majorly i can't even picture it! I'm really sorry, I just found out. Oof, let me know as soon as you can ok? We'll work something out.

At 8:56 PM, CarpeDM thought...

I wanted to comment on this earlier but couldn't. I want to smack your headache for being such a damn pain in the ass. Oh, I don't miss being a lead at all. And none of my bankers were half as annoying. At least of the rest of your team is pretty cool.

At 6:56 PM, srmc thought...

Sounds like the negative Nelly that used to sit next to me. Hmmmmmm I guess she ended up at your call center after she was fired from here. Sorry.