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Saturday, May 2, 2009

Office Confrontation, or Why You Should Never Yell at Melody's Pregnant Friend


I would apologize for not having written in nearly two months, but onward and upward, I'm here now.

Anyway, on Wednesday I had a bit of a showdown in my office. For some context:
I work in a housing office, and even though I don't actually work for housing (I know this is confusing, I can explain if you really want me to) the housing staff are my coworkers who I spend 40 hours with each week. We have some residents who are on a sort of a "black list" with us, in other words they either never pay their rent, or they have unending complaints, or they are down right rude jerks.* One such jerk* has raised his voice to nearly every person in our office on one occasion or another. He really yells a lot at my coworker/and friend who happens to be 7 months pregnant.

On Wednesday this man paid us a visit. As soon as I saw him, I watched his every move because of the way he has treated her previously. They exchanged words, and after she told him that she "did not appreciate the way he was talking" to her, she told him she would not argue with him, and that he needed to leave. At this point he said "look, you are here to serve me...."

This was, shall we say: the wrong choice of words. I stood up, and told him that she is not there to serve him, and that what he was asking her to do was well beyond the realm of service we provide. He did not like me standing there. He asked me why I was talking to him, and told me I did not need to be "crappy" to him. I told him that I was talking to him because he was mis-treating my coworker. He proceeded to yell at me, and kept asking me why I was talking to him. Every time he would ask me a question, he would talk over me as soon as I spoke. I told him that he obviously did not want to have a conversation with me, as he talked over my every word. I told him that I would not respond to him any more. He then asked me why we would not do what he wanted (a question I had already responded to, but he talked over me). So, I kept my word of not responding (at least not verbally) I crossed my arms and stared straight into his eyes. If you know me, you may be familiar with my ability to turn cold in 5 seconds flat, and that is just what I did. I kept my eyes fixed on his and stared at him silently as he asked more questions.

Finally he said "Oh, I know what's going on here, I get it." And I said "Yeah, what's that?" And he had nothing to say, and left. Let me just say that I had nothing to lose with this particular person, and as he left I prayed and hoped that he would report me to my boss. Unfortunately for him we are school housing and his absurd behavior is going to effect his academic life and how much longer he will be living in our housing.

It's pretty sad when a man who is twice my age yells at a pregnant woman.


*feel free to insert your own expletive here