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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

Am I being unreasonable to be annoyed with my colleagues who is obviously off with the fairies?

31 replies

Beoley2011 · 10/12/2013 21:32

One of my colleagues drives me mad. She is utterly incompetent and she is most of the time off with the fairies. Her 9 to 5pm is 9.30-4.30pm. and her hour lunch break is 2 hours long. I get more work done in 3 days than she does in 5 days. She offered to take minutes of a meeting when our admin colleague was on holiday and it was 13 bloody pages long filled with fiction, as she got so many things wrong, it was hardly any fact. And most of the things were about her blowing her own trumpet. In my opinion she should be doing more work than blowing her trumpet.

I told her today that I don’t want the cat in our office to walk all over my paperwork with her muddy paws, so she told me that I am the most tiresome and angry person she ever worked with and our office is a professional environment. Is she totally out of her mind, is she too stupid to realise that having a cat walking around on client’s files is NOT professional.

She interferes with my work saying she is ‘’trying to help’’ but it took me a few days to sort out the mess she caused by trying to help when she arranged one of my assistants an alternative place at another department.

Any suggestions to deal with her before I strangle her? Have anybody got even more annoying idiot colleague? If you do please write it down so it would make me feel better.

OP posts:
Chottie · 10/12/2013 21:38

I'm just amazed that you have a cat in your office?!? and 13 page long minutes, who has the time or indeed wants to wade through read them? Isn't she pulled up for working short hours? it would be noticed where I work!

I'm wondering if your colleague is ok? her behaviour does not sound very rational to me?

MammaTJ · 10/12/2013 21:43

Just strangle her and it will be over one way or another.

not really, that would be daft

CocktailQueen · 10/12/2013 21:46

Mamma Xmas Grin

Do you have a hr dept? A manager?does nobody notice her coming in Late and leaving early?

WhereDoAllTheCalculatorsGo · 10/12/2013 21:50

Tell us more about the office cat...

Writerwannabe83 · 10/12/2013 21:55

OMG - I would love to have an office cat!!!!

ShowMeYourTARDIS · 10/12/2013 21:56

How the hell has she gotten away with only working 25 hours a week when she's employed for 40? Confused

I would expect her to be fired for that alone.

FunkyBoldRibena · 10/12/2013 21:56

I widely I'd be sneezing my head off all day long.

Who is her manager and why aren't they managing her properly?

pixiepotter · 10/12/2013 21:59

..away with the fairies? No I think she has all her chairs at home.She is getting paid for 10 hours a week she isn't working....and getting away with it!

Financeprincess · 10/12/2013 22:03

Agreed. For 'away with the fairies' read 'lazy p* taker'.

youbethemummylion · 10/12/2013 22:07

I need to know more re the office cat

daisychain01 · 10/12/2013 22:08

What qualifications does this -liability of a- -idiot- colleague have?

Presumably she is one of these people who has been around for ever, since the Ark, and is just dead-wood now. Sorry to sound uncharitable but, honestly, you must be at your wits' end with all her 'taking the wee-wee'.

Is the cat classed as a company perk?

.

All that lovely stroking, hey maybe you could get some therapeutic value from cuddling the cat to calm you down while your colleague is wreaking havoc?

daisychain01 · 10/12/2013 22:11

What qualifications does this liability of a idiot colleague have?

Sorry, got the underscore mixed up with the hyphen Grin. You can sack me for being a useless typist, if that helps.

daisychain01 · 10/12/2013 22:12

What qualifications does this liability of a idiot colleague have?

FudgefaceMcZ · 10/12/2013 22:12

Get a lockable filing cabinet. Don't give the key to your colleague or the cat.

HoFuckingHoFuckingHoneydragon · 10/12/2013 22:12

Can you keep putting the cat shit shit in her in tray when she's not looking?

sadiekillmouski · 10/12/2013 22:14

Can she be sacked and the office cat be promoted to her position? They seem to have a similar work ethic, except the cat is probably much more soothing to have around...

optimusic · 10/12/2013 22:14

No manager to talk to her?

bellasuewow · 10/12/2013 22:45

Be careful and leave it to her manager she may raise a grievance against you for bullying and this could escalate somewhere beyond your control if it gets too acrimonious. Don't lose your job over this it is not worth it.

Iamsparklyknickers · 10/12/2013 22:58

I am desperate to see what those minutes are like - sorry op, I know you're having a hard time, but that sounds fricking hilarious!

On a (hopefully) helpful note, is there a line manager you can approach for an informal conversation. Characters clash, there's no shame in admitting that you're finding someone professionally hard going. Is there any way responsibilities could be shared out so if she is going to take minutes worthy of being sold alongside 50 Shades of Grey it's very much her problem.

Keep it professional, count to five and look for the neutrality in the situation and then make it your line managers problem. Either they implement stratagies or they realise she's an expensive problem.

Rosencrantz · 10/12/2013 23:00

I worked in an office with a dog! (Saying where will totally out me, as it is quite a famous dog!)

Original poster
Beoley2011 · 11/12/2013 13:09

The can is lovely as long as she stays on the floor.
I think she's got the job as she can present herself more able than she is. I'm not sure what qualifications she has got.

OP posts:
AngelaDaviesHair · 11/12/2013 13:11

Concentrate on where she interferes with your work and raise that as an issue. Other stuff might sound petty and personal, but going to your manager and explaining that Fairy Queen is making your job more difficult in a dispassionate, detailed way will get you further.

WhoNickedMyName · 11/12/2013 13:13

OMG you have an office cat?! I'd LOVE to work in an office with a cat.

I have plenty of colleagues who have the same working hours as yours. I read your first paragraph thinking you had to be working for the NHS like me, only the cat thing tells me you're not.

Original poster
Beoley2011 · 11/12/2013 13:14

I mean cat is lovely.

OP posts:
Dededum · 11/12/2013 13:15

At my old firm the p**taker was my manager - incompetent, always late, leve early, missed appointments and 'worked from home' a lot. The bosses weren't interested even though a wide range of people had complained about her. Either she knew something about someone or maybe a 'disability' that we didn't know about.