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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Office Princess

63 replies

GirlOnATrainToShite · 21/06/2017 00:25

So we have this really difficult and fucking lazy colleague. Every day she has a new health issue which TBH I now ignore. She is one of those people who always has to make a fuss, thinks everyone is out to get her and falls out with everyone. She isn't just allergic she's really allergic to x y and z. There are others including myself who suffer with hay fever but take pills etc and get on with it (sometimes my eyes just stream!) but when she is there she has it the worst.

Our office is at the back of an old youth centre and the sun always comes in in the afternoon massive windows overlooking a huge playing field. Lovely.

In the winter it's freezing in the morning but the sun blazes in through the windows in the afternoon - we have a couple of plug in heaters which she takes charge of and will take to the side of her desk and straddle when she arrives Hmm.

While ago we raised our concerns with her manager as she arrives late, leaves early, does fuck all while she is there and spends hours on personal phone calls. There was a meeting where office "rules" were agreed which she still continues to ignore esp while just her and I there. She falls out with everyone - including partners (schools) to the point she cannot work in some schools.

Last few days with the heat we have had all the windows and the door open, the fan on and it's hot but bearable. Hay fever not great due to feild, itchy eyes nose those ears etc but most people in the office unaware I suffer unless my eyes are steaming and is preferable to sweating.

Office Princess arrives and closed all the doors and windows and blinds saying the "warm air" was making it hotter and opened all the fire doors to the old youth centre.

I did challenge her (even went down the health and safety route) but she argued and I backed down as crap with conflict.

But have spent the last two days sweating my arse off Angry

What do I do?!

OP posts:
GirlOnATrainToShite · 21/06/2017 07:32

She isn't Autistic.

I have an intimate knowledge of all her health concerns.

OP posts:
CuppaSarah · 21/06/2017 07:33

My sister has reams of conditions she has and is always competitive about how unwell she is. Maybe we should introduce them and see who ends up with a potentially fatal condition first? Grin

ittakes2 · 21/06/2017 07:34

She sounds awful in general but that's the advice we are given in australia - to close the curtains and blinds etc to stop the place heating up.

StephanieAteMyLunch · 21/06/2017 07:47

Sort out bringing in your own fan and have it PAT tested which takes 4 seconds. Don't rely on the office to provide one.

Find out who is in charge of doing that and get it sorted.

I would start putting everything in writing complaints wise that way there is a paper trail of people raising issues against her.

MonkeylovesRobot · 21/06/2017 07:59

You have just described one of my colleagues, only she's also vile, a bully and horrible to anyone who is not the same race as her. Whenever it's pulled up she cites the other personal has mental health difficulties and shouldn't be believed.

I am leaving. I am so fucking tired of it, I'm leaving.

PocaMiseria · 21/06/2017 08:00

@MrsOverTheRoad Wed 21-Jun-17 07:27:01

"we had no aircon...it's still understood that you don't open windows and doors unless you want a room full of hot air.

You have fans on and windows shut."

Thank you for that - I was going to start my own AIBU but you've saved me the trouble.
I work from home and so at the moment am closing everything to keep the heat out as soon as the temperature outside starts to rise (although just now the doors and windows at the back are still open to get cooler air inside.)
O/H, however, insists on opening the bedroom window when he arrives home from work at 6 p.m. when it's still stiffling outside.... on the pretext of "getting a flow of air through". But it doesn't work - the air is hotter so it just gets hotter in the bedroom. I just can't seem to get your point across to him.
(Sorry for hijacking thread: your colleague sounds a nightmare, OP).

DeadGood · 21/06/2017 08:00

Yeah she is right about keeping the shades down. Can't believe you sitting there in a greenhouse and wondering why you're hot!

MonkeylovesRobot · 21/06/2017 08:03

The list:

Anaphlaycis to wheat (with throat swelling) diagnosed by one of those dodgy as fuck blood tests. Despite being anaphlayxis, with throat swelling, GP did not refer to allergy team as "he really does know his stuff, without him I'd never have known I was so ill"

GirlOnATrainToShite · 21/06/2017 08:11

I am in the office and it's definitely cooler with the door open - other colleagues agree.

OP posts:
wobblywonderwoman · 21/06/2017 08:12

Everytime she starts talking I would say, we are here to work and get back to it. I would but my own fan and permanent marker you name on it and Velcro it to your desk.

Don't give her air time at all!!!

Just say 'a lot of people have health conditions but are more private about it. They quietly get on with their work' type of thing.

wobblywonderwoman · 21/06/2017 08:13

Could you keep saying 'that matter is private surely ....' A lot until she gets the hint

Redsippycup · 21/06/2017 08:14

What would happen if you said 'don't do that please, everyone else wants the door / windows open' and then opened the windows again?

Obviously best to make sure everyone does want them open first!

TheWhiteRoseOfYork · 21/06/2017 08:16

Some weird STD style thing Probably from straddling the radiators, yuck! But seriously, she tells you about having a STD? Shock

MonkeylovesRobot · 21/06/2017 08:22

"But seriously, she tells you about having a STD?"

She describes an STD to me (without calling it an STD), then says it's some batshit crazy thing about fused vanjangos and superbugs (not quite the words she is using) and how disgusted she is that the nurse wanted to do an STD test and wouldn't just prescribe her the antibiotics plus the 100 antibiotic antidotes she needs to take alongside the antibiotics and how that the nurse is clearly blind as she has "seen and examined it several times and still doesn't realise there is something seriously wrong with me and that I urgently need ABs"

Honestly. I had this spiel for about 8 months. I had to stop eating my breakfast at my desk because I couldn't actually eat with half the shit and detailed anatomy that was spewing out of her mouth.

TheWhiteRoseOfYork · 21/06/2017 08:31

'Sorry, that is an inappropriate topic for a work place discussion. '

Then just keep it up like a broken record. I think most people with any sort of social awareness would realise this anyway. I can't imagine your other colleagues/manager would not back you up. I feel so sorry for you, it sounds utterly grim!

Haffiana · 21/06/2017 08:39

I reckon these are the offspring of those mothers who used to march into the school and complain if their ppearls were ever, ever disciplined about anything. Because of course, said ppearls always had an excuse/reason/health issue/other 'specialness' that meant that they didn't have to do homework or gym or whatever and mustn't be told off for anything.

This is where it leads. People who cannot function properly in an adult workplace.

Greyponcho · 21/06/2017 08:43

Poca- have you tried opening the loft hatch to let the hot air escape up there? Open downstairs windows/doors on the windward side of the house for a chimney effect.

Frillyhorseyknickers · 21/06/2017 08:46

Wait until she's on leave and have a plant sale.

You need to raise it as a serious issue with your boss.

KERALA1 · 21/06/2017 08:49

On what planet is it appropriate to talk to work colleagues about health stuff? Weirdo

Mummmy2017 · 21/06/2017 08:51

I would buy my own fan, and put my name on it, and yes say you have hay fever and ask for the plants to go.

Just tell her your busy , hold up your palm towards her , and say can you talk later when she tried to tell you how ill she is,

WarriorsDance · 21/06/2017 08:54

then says it's some batshit crazy thing about fused vanjangos

There's a condition called Lichen Sclerosus that can result in fused labia (but it's definitely not an STD)

MonkeylovesRobot · 21/06/2017 08:58

WarriorsDance

Realise that, but this was all madeup. A group of us had had the Lichen Sclerosus discussion a month previously in the office, and the BOOM, suddenly this coworker had decided she'd contracted it due to some weird superbug (that needs all the antibiotics and remedies prescribed). You can't reason with her, and when you try and do she's vile.

Sandsnake · 21/06/2017 08:59

She sounds like she just needs to be sacked, tbh. Local authorities have enough problems without being expected to have to provide jobs for the terminally incompetent/ lazy. Must be so frustrating for the other staff (including OP!).

Maudlinmaud · 21/06/2017 09:06

So glad Im rarely in an office now. Just the odd team meeting and it's bliss. Op shame the princess into decency. Don't let this continue. I don't suffer fools gladly at all I'm afraid and would nip it in the bud very quickly. It's a weakness Blush

SweetLuck · 21/06/2017 09:14

Straddles the heaters? Does that not just waft fanny smell round the room? Confused

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