To be fed up with my colleague inflicting her moods on me.

[Bigfatwiggle]

I've just moved to a new company. The lady I sit next to has no poker face. If she is in a bad mood she makes it known. One minute she can be fine and we get along well, nattering and having a joke, then the next she bites my head off or makes insulting and rude comments. I don't think I'm being particularly sensitive- she is just really rude at times. She frequently misunderstands what I am trying to say and gets defensive as if I'm trying to blame her for stuff when all I'm doing is explaining what I've done.
She blames me for things not being done when she hasn't even asked me to do them. She's repeatedly asked me today "Have you done x?" When I said no she got cross and told me I should have because it's part of the process- we've had the same convo about 5 times. That's all very well but its not my area of business that I deal with and when she asked me to help her I followed her limited instructions to the letter and went above and beyond to do the task requested. However I'm not a mind reader.

I've mentioned it to the boss and he says "oh it's just her way"
If I'm in a bad mood or premenstrual I just stick my head phones in and get on with my work.
She also regularly slags people off then if you agree with her jumps to their defence.

I am thinking of asking to be moved to another desk. I'm getting really fed up. I even checked to see when she is going on holiday so I can have a break from her......roll on October when she's off for 2 weeks!

I would definitely be asked to be moved to another desk.

Are you saying you're doing work for her that isn't in your own job description?

If I'm in a bad mood or premenstrual I just stick my head phones in and get on with my work.

Make the headphones a permanent feature and block her out.

I've mentioned it to the boss and he says "oh it's just her way"

Not a good boss, then. He should have nipped this behaviour in the bud a long time ago.

Meanwhile, keep your interactions short and neutral (so it can't be twisted), log everything, including being asked/told to do something not in your area of work. And ask to move desks.

Also, you shouldn't have to do stuff just because she asks. Is she managing you?

She isn't being rude by mistake, she is blowing hot and cold trying to keep you on a knife edge.
Ask to be moved, until then don't do anything for her and stop responding to her demands. She isn't your supervisor.

No she isn't senior to me. We do the same job, we just all have individual things assigned to us. We do from time to time need help from one another as our workloads fluctuate massively and I'm happy to help.
That said the moods do my head in. She made a rude comment earlier so I pretended I didn't hear her. She's now ignoring me. Win win if you ask me.

FFS. Why are these idiots allowed to get away with this? I've been given the silent treatment for over a month for (yet another) perceived misunderstanding by my colleague (who is shagging my boss - unhappily, or so it seems). There are just 3 of us in our team, and the head office is in Spain so I have no one to report her to. It is shit. I am so done with her petty and miserable behaviour, it is earphones in, head down, and ignore the silly bitch.

Petty I know, but if she's waiting for a fight or an apology, or both, she'll have a long wait.

OK, ignoring may be the way to go, but do keep track of, and log, stuff.

If she's asking you to do stuff not assigned to you, say you can do it when your own work is cleared. Helping each other is fine, but should not be to the detriment of your own work.

This is a really horrible situation to be in. I worked in a small office with 4 F/t workers and 2-3 part timers - usually it was a lovely place to work but the lady who was my supervisor wouldn't speak to me for days on end. I took it really personally and couldn't understand what I'd done. I think the others were used to her ways as she'd been there the longest and if she was ill you never heard the end of it. I used to live for the days she was off - she made my working life really miserable. I ended up being signed off and never went back. I felt really pleased in dropping them all in it work wise as they used to spend 90% of their working time online shopping.