Wednesday, November 07, 2007

Useless Lie

She complains, almost daily, about having too much work. And, yet, she's been at her desk for mos of the past ninety minutes trimming her fingernails. Other days she's on her cell phone chatting and laughing with, what I assume is, a friend. Sometimes she sits there paying bills and then balancing her checkbook for hours. When she gets her paycheck she does another balancing act on her checkbook as well as adding to pages and pages of notes about her pay that she's kept for the last ten years. Still, she complains about having too much work.

And I don't understand. I do understand the she's a person who just likes to complain about things; she always seems happier when she has had something new to bitch about. What I don't understand is why she lies to herself.

She doesn't have too much work. I get more work than she does and I sure as hell am not getting too much work. I get very little work and then am supposed to ask for busy work when I'm finished at my desk. She gets one real spurt of work when the mail comes in and she stamps it and then give it to the lead clerk to distribute. That's about it, for her, other than going up to the counter, but she really only does that in the morning and in the afternoon seems to expect the rest of us to do it for her, even though she's been the lead counter clerk for five years.

So, why does she lie to herself about her work load? What does it accomplish?

12 comments:

heels said...

My guess is that she KNOWS she doesn't do much and feels like she has to make it seem like she's so busy in order to stop people from wondering why they don't just fire her.

ticknart said...

First, she's not going to be fired. We work for the state, they can only fire you after you're negligent for six months and then the supervisor has to file paperwork with personnel and then the supervisor's work gets reviewed for a month and a mediation is set up between you and the supervisor and someone in personnel and you're put on probation and watched closely for a month or so and then if you do really bad they may fire you, but they may not.

And yeah, I'm exaggerating, but not by much, otherwise several people I'm currently working with wouldn't be here anymore.

Still, you make a good point.

geewits said...

I was thinking maybe that she ISN'T lying to herself. If it takes her 90 minutes to do her nails, then practically ANY amount of work is probably too much for her.

ticknart said...

Geewits -- It wasn't like she was continuously clipping her nails for those ninety minutes. It was more like she started around 8:15 and between then and 9:45 she would stop and shuffle around, or make her coffee, or something and finally put her clippers away at 9:45. Also, I've seen her open new cases, on occasion, she's pretty quick at it. So, I think she's lying to herself and all of us as well.

Jazz said...

Um, she's an idiot?

I got it, didn't I? That was the right answer wasn't it?

ticknart said...

Jazz -- I don't know.

Queenie said...

At least she makes coffee. I would gladly pay others to do that for me.

Q

Queenie said...

Oh oyu said HER coffee.
I should read slower...

Q

Queenie said...

... and apparently type slower too...

Q

ticknart said...

Q -- Yeah, HER coffee, at HER desk with HER own little pot thingie. It's a nice way to keep people locked out, I guess.

Huh, maybe I should try it, too.

heels said...

You hate coffee.

Oh- that wasn't the point.

Anyway, my original point was basically that she's feeling guilty and trying to justify her own existence. Just not guilty enough to actually DO anything.

ticknart said...

Heels -- I don't hate it, I just don't drink it.

And your point is a good one, but I still don't understand why she, or anyone, lies to herself. It just seems stupid. Maybe it just me.