At the end of March I took a 20 hour pw admin job at a local college. I'm trying to care for my terminally ill mum and this seemed ideal. I report to two managers. One is fine, friendly and professional. Most things are done electronically and I seldom see her.
The other is the opposite and I find her increasingly unnerving. From day one she's talked at me intensely, leaping from one subject to another and oversharing wildly. She comes in every morning and we spend perhaps ten minutes discussing events of the previous day, what needs doing etc. Then if she hasn't got anything lined up immediately, she sits on the corner of my desk and talks and talks and talks. She also cries on an almost daily basis — things she's seen on TV, things her daughter and husband have said, things she's read. She's sometimes there in this hyper-emotional state talking at me for 40 minutes at a time. I have strategies, like trying to book things so that she doesn't have the time to talk, or leaving the office to go and do something or working while she talks. I do regularly say that I've got a lot to do and need to get on but she doesn't usually take the hint.
I don't engage: if I engage it usually ends up getting even more strange. On the first day we met she told me she had five children. I said 'Wow, five children, they must keep you busy.' The next day when she was complaining about how much laundry she has to do, I commented that it was no wonder, with five children — and she immediately said she had four children, where did I get the idea she had five? 'Misunderstandings' like that have happened regularly, not just involving her personal life but also work issues. She's given me dates and times to book rooms or events or arrange for certain people to be available and then later contradicted her own instructions.
She's been off for a week and I've really enjoyed my break from her. I'm dreading tomorrow morning. I've had a discreet word with a couple of other colleagues and when I mention the talking they roll their eyes. One said she'd got a lot worse recently and has hinted that that was why the person previously in my role left.
I don't know what I'm asking from anyone who might be reading this. I'm doing things like keeping notes and trying to get her to put every request in writing, so that if she denies she's asked for something I'll at least have the evidence to assure myself that it's not me, it's her. Has anyone else encountered a comparable situation? In previous jobs I've taken issues to HR to ask for advice but after only 10 weeks in the job I'm not sure it's going to look good to complain about a manager having very leaky boundaries.