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#Post#: 2250--------------------------------------------------
Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: G-Lady
Date: March 23, 2012, 12:57 pm
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I work for a government office. Space is at a premium at my
job, so only the Elected Officials and their Chiefs of Staff get
offices with doors. I'm a director, but I get a cubicle like
everyone else.
I share a cubicle wall with a loud talker from another Elected
Official's office. I can hear ALL her conversations loud and
clear - I know all about her husband's health problems, issues
in her HOA, her neighbors' business, and her boss's business. I
often have a white noise generator turned on and all the way -
it offers some relief. While it's frustrating to be next to a
loud talker (there are times I can't hear someone on the phone
because of how loud she is), it's her racist and ignorant
attitude that's becoming intolerable.
The other week, I overheard her talking with someone (a friend?
a constituent?) about a "super saver" type grocery store that
was going into her neighborhood (if anyone's familiar with Joe
V's or Aldi, it's like one of those). I actually heard her say
"those Hispanics are taking over the neighborhood." Excuse
me????? Um, your colleague the the cubicle next to you is
Latina, and I'm part Latina!
Today, I overheard her talking with a constituent about a
"vicious pit bull." You're going to have to trust me on this,
but from her conversation, it was very clear that the dog was
vicious because it's a pit bull, not because the owner has
trained it to be vicious or doesn't properly contain it to his
property. The conversation went on and on about how evil pit
bulls are and that they should all be destroyed.
My 7yo Jack is a pit mix. He's a 67lbs lap dog who loves to
give kisses. Every single pit and pit mix I've ever met has
been a loving, sweet, loyal dog. The only vicious dogs I've
ever encountered have been trained to be vicious by their
owners. And I've encountered plenty of poorly socialized dogs,
but again, that's the owner's fault.
I drank several cans of Coke, counted to ten, and took lots of
deep breaths. Unfortunately, the conversation was long and I
could not excuse myself from my desk for long because I was the
only one in our office at that time and had to stay close to
answer the phone.
Her cubicle neighbor and I commiserated briefly today, but she's
got bigger problems on her plate right now and while sympathetic
and also deeply insulted, has to prioritize her battles.
Do I need to
1) develop better coping strategies?
2) move to a different cubicle?
3) report this to her Chief of Staff?
4) report this to her Elected Official?
5) report this to HR?
I'm going to talk to my office manager (who worked with her
previously) as well, but I'd like your input.
#Post#: 2257--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: TychaBrahe
Date: March 23, 2012, 5:26 pm
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I know you found the pit bull conversation insulting, but that's
not going to be of interest to HR, so I'd leave it out of the
mix.
The fact that she is making disparaging comments about Latinas
in the offices of a public official who probably represents more
than a few means that she is creating a negative image of her
boss and probably his whole party. The fact that two people of
Latin heritage are there contributes to a hostile work
environment.
I would go to HR and start with the fact that she is 1)
obviously too busy discussing personal things to be getting much
work done, 2) loud enough that she is making it difficult for
you to do your work, and 3) making racist comments.
I hope after that you won't have to deal with her much longer.
#Post#: 2260--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: Jabberwock
Date: March 23, 2012, 6:08 pm
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I agree with TychaBrahe, focus on the racism and the fact that
they're personal calls.
If I were you I would keep a log for a short period of time (a
day, or maybe a week) of all of her personal calls. Then
approach whoever is in charge of deciding if you can move
cubicles, tell them that you have the following issues and would
like to be moved:
A) Her loud volume makes it difficult to focus on the work you
need to do, and can interfere with your own phone calls
B) She spends a large amount of time making personal calls or
having non-work related conversations, also at high volume (hand
over the log you've made)
C) She has loudly made racist remarks that you find personally
offensive.
#Post#: 2268--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: aventurine
Date: March 24, 2012, 1:42 am
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You've already gotten excellent advice, and I'd like to second
the idea of keeping a log of her comments.
#Post#: 2272--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: G-Lady
Date: March 24, 2012, 12:05 pm
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My office manager is working on getting me moved to one of our
vacant cubicles. We talked yesterday afternoon and she's also
had run ins with this colleague when they worked together. When
she's get going about Irish people, my OM would have to get up
and leave because she'd get so angry and insulted (my OM's of
Irish descent). I'm really shocked that she's not been fired
over this yet.
I like the idea of the log, but it will be tricky since I work
very hard to just tune her out. I know one of my dept
coworker's has overheard her complain about Muslims. So I'll
discretely ask him to keep a log as well.
My dad and I are going to talk. He's worked in this same office
and staunchly believes that racist remarks of any kind don't
belong in an Elected Official's office.
I wonder what other groups of people she'll make nasty comments
about. I'm very mixed, so I get my hackles up pretty bad
whenever anyone makes any sort of racist comment even if it's
not against one of my heritages.
It's bad enough that she makes these comments on conversations
that she thinks are private. But I strongly suspect she's
talking like this with constituents as well. And that's not
acceptable at all.
#Post#: 2275--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: ChocolateRenegade
Date: March 24, 2012, 2:15 pm
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With your update it sounds like she is making a hostile work
environment and knows it. She's making racist comments about
Irish around the Irish, Muslims around the Muslim, and Latinos
around the Latinos. Since you didn't mention hearing any racism
directed at a group you aren't part of then I think the case
could be made that she's doing this on purpose. Saying it into a
phone or to someone else in the room doesn't mean it isn't
directed at her coworkers.
#Post#: 2358--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: G-Lady
Date: March 28, 2012, 1:51 pm
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We have an initial solution. I am moving the empty cube between
my two coworkers, possibly as early as later today if IT is
available.
Her Chief of Staff is aware of the noise problem and has spoken
to her about it, and she'll try (though she's been warned about
this numerous times and is only good for a day or two). Her COS
also asked if she'd move, and she refuses. Which boggles my
mind because her volume bothers a lot of people (my manager can
hear her from behind her closed office door). If this continues
to be a problem, I may ask some of the other neighboring offices
to speak up as well.
I do not know if she was spoken to about the racist remarks.
#Post#: 2362--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: stars afire
Date: March 28, 2012, 2:49 pm
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Extremely glad to hear that this is being dealt with!
My only addition here: Make sure her other cubicle neighbor has
heard the advice about keeping a log. :)
#Post#: 2542--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: G-Lady
Date: April 5, 2012, 3:41 pm
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I've been moved, and it's MUCH easier for me to concentrate. A
few people have asked why I moved, and I've been honest about
the noise. Many of the "veterans" around here knew exactly what
I was talking about.
I'm still really surprised that she's not been fired for some of
the hate she's spewed.
#Post#: 2570--------------------------------------------------
Re: Ignore it, or go to her supervisor?
DIR By: DanglyParts
Date: April 8, 2012, 7:26 am
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--- Quote from: G-Lady link ---
>
> I've been moved, and it's MUCH easier for me to concentrate.
A few people have asked why I moved, and I've been honest about
the noise. Many of the "veterans" around here knew exactly what
I was talking about.
>
> I'm still really surprised that she's not been fired for some
of the hate she's spewed.
>
--- End Quote ---
I will never understand why some people are seemingly bullet
proof, teflon coated Wonderpants Extraordinaire while others go
down in flames for significantly lesser transgressions.
Life is weird, yo.
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