Almost Lost My Job

Well, folks, I almost lost my job today.  And the way that happened is as follows:

I got to work bright and early -- well, not so bright, as the sun wasn't up yet -- and began my day.  I walked over to the computer to print out the day's schedule, and while I was there, clicked through to the company home page, because I like to see who has a birthday that day.  Today just happens to be New Supervisor's birthday.  Hmmm, I thought.  I ought to make him a card or something.

I got a piece of paper out of the printer and had Group Leader (because she has nice handwriting) write Happy Birthday [New Supervisor] on it.  Then I got all the sub-brazers and parts stagers to sign it, and I taped it up on the stanchion.  Then we waited.

At the moment, New Supervisor is working a split shift.  He comes in at noon, and stays until 10:00 PM, so I knew it would be a bit of a minute before he got there.   

While we were waiting for time to pass, my Stalker -- you know, the guy I mentioned yesterday who stares at me all day, the one who stares so much he makes the person standing next to me feel uncomfortable -- came over and said, "You ought to write [something nasty and extremely inappropriate] on there." 

I said, "No!  I'm not writing that stupid mess on there."  Stalker said, "Well, that's what me and [So-and-So] and them call him."   I replied, "This sign isn't from you and [So-and-So] and them.  It's from us, and I'm not writing it on there." 

Sometime later, I had to step away from my stand for a moment.  When I came back, Coworker said, "He wrote it on there.  I told him not to, but he did it anyway."

I.  Was.  Livid. 

I very nearly went into full on Berserker mode.  That's the point where I nearly lost my job.  It's been a long, long time since I wanted to beat the crap out of someone so badly.  Here I was, wanting to make a nice, thoughtful, classy gesture, he has to go writing that nasty mess on it. Then, to make matters worse, Stalker tries to play the victim, and acts like he can't understand why we all got so mad over it. 

I let him know in no uncertain terms we did not appreciate him doing that.  I said, "Two different people told you not to write that on there.  Why on earth would you think it was OK do to it anyway?" 

Later on, he came over an apologized, saying, "I'm sorry I hurt your feelings." 

I said, "It's not about my feelings!  Here I am trying to do something nice and thoughtful for someone, and you had to go and ruin it!"  He said, "Well, that's what me and [other workers] call him."  I replied, "Then you should have made your own sign and got [other workers] to sign it.  This one was from us, and you had no right to write anything on it, much less that!" 

I went over and fixed the sign by drawing flowers with a marker over the nasty thing Stalker had written, but I was still furious.  One of the tap fitting brazers came over and said, "Who drew flowers on it?"  I told her I had, and my coworker who stands right next to me explained why.  Tap Fitter gave me an "are you serious?" look, then shook her said and said, "He's just jealous." 

Coworker and I looked at each other and said, "See?  We called it.  Even other people are noticing, not just us."  Stalker has been jealous of New Supervisor ever since he got there, because we actually like New Supervisor.  Nobody really likes Stalker.  Probably because he's such a sphincter. 

Finally, New Supervisor comes in -- and walks right past the sign twice.  I even called him over to explain a certain equipment failure we were experiencing, so he was standing right in front of the sign, but still didn't see it.  We were hoping he'd notice on his own, but in the end, somebody had to point it out to him.  He turned so red, I almost felt bad about doing it.  But he took a picture, so I think he appreciated the gesture. 

After it was all said and done, I said to my coworker, "Well, if there's anything good to come out of this, at least [Stalker] stopped staring at me -- well, for now anyway." 

It didn't last long.  By the end of the day, he was right back into full on stalker mode. 

Ugh, and I've still got one more day to get through.