A few years ago I took redundancy from my employer. Recently I have been temping there again so I have some income, while I go to uni one morning a week. I worked in one department for 4 weeks and that was only short term. An ex colleague heard I was back in the office and was desperate for me to come back and kept saying how I knew the system and she would not have to retrain someone. I initially declined but she was quite offended and after thinking about it I thought I can do it for 3 and a half months.
Afterwards she told me she has been covering someone else since July last year. She tried to get temps but claims people would cancel on her at the last minute and say they have got something else or they were unlikeable at the interview. She got someone in for 3 months from September which she claims they didn't enjoy the job and left. I find it hard to believe that everyone is bad and unreliable the way she makes out. Some people in this economic climate want a job. In total she was on her own for 6 out of 9 months.
I did not work closely with her before but would speak to her at lunch. She is impatient and has told me this so can lose her rag at times whereas most people would not get easily frustrated. One or two times she has spoken down to me all because I wanted to clarify a process with her so no mistakes were made. I think it's better to ask then get it wrong, it's not like I expected her to do the work.
I shadowed her once before for an interview with a customer. It was a while back and I had about 30 facts to remember. As the organisation is chaotic and disorganised they don't make user manuals so I had made some notes about these 30 facts she would tell the customer. As she has been doing the job for years she can remember these things. I had partially typed up the notes from shadowing her so I could read through and learn them, though I have not had chance due to how manic it has been and having to prioritise other tasks.
Today we had an interview with a customer and she said I could have a go at interviewing them. I started interviewing them and she jumped in saying she liked the sound of her own voice and that I had missed something. The thing is she never gave me chance to carry on and I felt she was undermining me as though she doesn't believe in me. I said I can type my notes up and learn the 30 facts and she said I don't need to so she is already trying to control me by dictating the way I learn. I have to read things a few times first to learn and she is purposely saying not to. If she thinks I want her job she is welcome to it as I would never want to work there permanently ever again due to the chaos and bitchiness from her and some management.
She also slags off other members of staff for not knowing things. To be fair to them they would not know some processes as there has been a high staff turnover and the organisation never creates user manuals for people to refer to so they would not know unless they had worked there years ago.
It's quite clear she wanted to use me just because I knew how the system and organisation works. What is the best way to not let this negativity affect me? It's only a temp job which I want the money for. it seems like she never moved on as she is still there whereas most people left.