The Plastics Invade My Office

I work in an office where the majority of the support staff are women. The office manager is a woman. My boss is an old white fellow who can barely turn on his computer. He, therefore, has vested all power and control over the staff and the infrastructure of the office to the office manager.

The office manager is not a benevolent dictator. Consider her an older version of Regina George from Mean Girls. She rules with an iron fist, is cheap as the day is long (she goes from office to office stealing excess pens from people's offices and returns them to the supply room under the cover of night), and she tends to play favorites.

It is not to say that our office does not run efficiently, in some ways. But someone has yet to explain to me why the person who takes the outgoing mail down to the mail room cannot be the person who brings the incoming mail up to our office. The person who answers the phones also does dictation, which seems to me to be an odd choice. All in all, things sometimes just don't make sense.

But what really gets me is the abject rudeness that is allowed to occur in the office. Because we are a government organization, the support staff are unionized. Behaviors that would, in the private sector get someone canned, are allowed to bloom and fester.

There is one woman, who admittedly is more than a little annoying, who has been isolated in a completely different region of our office from the other staff. The office manager is unbelievably rude to this woman, the product of grievances past. and no one calls the office manager on the unprofessionalism she displays. You may not like a person, but if you are the boss do you have to show it? Should you show it?

The office manager has two favorites, who seem to be in charge of very limited duties compared to the rest of the staff. Despite the fact that they are less efficient, they are rewarded with extra-wide smiles and little inside jokes. The other 4 staff members are alternately ignored or berated. The old white guy at the top is oblivious.

One of the other 4 staff members is an absolute delight. She comes early, stays late, seeks out other work when she is slow and will help others out. She recently incited the wrath of one of the favorites. The atmosphere is so bad, that she was in my office crying two days in a row. And this from a woman who came back early from medical leave from major surgery without complaint. She wants to quit.

Which brings me to my question of the day? Why is it, when given absolute authority, people abuse it? Why is it that when women work together it devolves into a junior high atmosphere? Why are there adult bullies in the workplace and why is this allowed to continue in a professional atmosphere?

We really are, as a gender, our own worst enemies sometimes. You may not like someone, but really, why do you have to go out of your way to show it? And what should bosses do to ensure it doesn't happen in the first instance?