h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Have you ever started out a day, and had something so wonderful happen, it was like winning the lottery?

More in another post- I don't like scrolling down long pages so I won't make mine cluttered, either.

Most of you lot will have listened to me moan over the last year about a co-worker who'd moved near me within the last year or so and with whom I'd previously been friendly. I was happy to have someone I liked close enough to talk to, etc, and we'd even gotten together maybe a half dozen times outside of work. K and I visited their home twice, and they visited ours twice.

But there was a down side (isn't there ALWAYS a down side?). This guy was one of those self-centered, passive-aggressive and arrogant types who thinks he's more important than anyone else. Once he settled in, it was like a worked in a rendering plant rather than an office. He smelled bad. He spent half the day eating, and chewed loudly enough to be heard several yards away. He banged and slammed things around all day, rattled ice cubes in a glass like a maraca, crunched ice cubes with his mouth open... the list goes on. Since I thought we were friendly, I'd even asked him to tone down some of the chewing sounds because they gross me out. That just made it worse. Not behavior I typically look for in a friend, but I did my best to remain friendly because his wife really likes our cat.

A couple weeks ago was the last straw- and I actually posted a journal entry about the incident. This would be the incident of the dirty laundry.

Well, on Friday I made an attempt to discuss it with him. Of course he denied leaving them there. They're his pants. Who else would have left them there? I'm apparently expected to believe a trouser bandit broke into his home, brought his pants back to the office and planted them on my desk to annoy me.

Anyway, I told him that I had discussed the situation with K to make sure I wasn't over-reacting, had confirmed that I was not, and as a result, while I'd like to maintain an amicable working relationship, I'm no longer interested in associating outside of work and he is no longer welcome in our home.

And the only thing that really seemed to bother this creep was that I had discussed with K. Why on earth wouldn't I? We discuss everything else, obviously. K confirmed that I was not over-reacting and that I was absolutely justified in feeling the way I do. And also that he could care less if we don't hang out with the guy any more- he only met him a half dozen times, they have almost nothing in common, and this guy's interest in hanging out with us only extended as far as ripping our CD and DVD collection rather than buying his own stuff.

So, I was already relieved enough at no longer having to be nice and hospitable to someone I have good reason to dislike. But then on Friday afternoon... he moved to another desk halfway across the office and far enough away that my days will be free of slurps and burps and crunching and bad smells.

What a perfect day!

>>Not behavior I typically look for in a friend, but I did my best to remain friendly because his wife really likes our cat.<<

That sentence gave me a good giggle

Me too.

Great news PC. Must make the daily grind less of a one. Maybe it's a Labor Day thing

And as for ripping off all your music and movies - that's just outrageous.

That's got to be a relief P/C!

It is. This guy really was the only source of job-related stress for me. It's all better now and I am feeling totally .

His wife's a really nice lady, though, and Herman reminds her of her kitteh that died.

Christopher, it's worse than you think- he went so far as to ask me to bring in a bunch of our stuff to work with me every day so he could rip it all to his laptop during the workday. He wasn't even willing to copy all our stuff on his own time.

I'm glad I have someone like K to help me work out whether or not I'm over-reacting when I come to terms with the fact it's time to rid myself of a toxic person. It's helped me purge a couple of others during the last few years. Otherwise I've had a bad habit of keeping people around who treat me like crap and assuming I must have done something to warrant being treated as such.

>>Otherwise I've had a bad habit of keeping people around who treat me like crap and assuming I must have done something to warrant being treated as such.<<

Tell me about it.

I'm happy for you.

It's the scourge of the nice person, taking crap off people, isn't it.

It's like sitting in a little spot in heaven over here today.

eeeuuuuwww, load chewing and crunching? One of my pet hates too, it just make ya cringe doesn't it?

Yay for the pong and noise free working area and nasty man being moved away!

p.s. I'm gonna have to read back on your journal about the trouser incident...so freaky.

Wishing you and continuing magical day my friend!

I'm glad I'm not the only person in the world who hates loud chewing and crunching sounds.

Apparently, most people think I'm over-reacting. My boss, who's a reasonable guy and someone I do respect, is sure that the trousers weren't left there *on purpose*, but can appreciate that I thought it was gross, doesn't want to know all the details of any "personal issues" between me and pants man, and basically said I'm free to deal with his as little as possible provided my boss gets pulled into as little drama as possible.

Maybe I did get more upset than necessary. But I'm entitled to decide for myself what pisses me off and what doesn't. Right?

You're not overreacting and your boss isn't exercising very good managerial skills.

Thank you, Sho.

Since they think this person is a good worker- though while he may get plenty of stuff done, IMO a "good" worker doesn't deliberately antagonize co-workers- I'll just make every effort to avoid the pants guy as much as possible in the future. Everyone else there thinks I'm awesome, and my workload's perfectly bearable, so I'd hate to let one person spoil what could otherwise be reasonably decent workdays for me.

Hi Sho, long time no see!

No psychocandy, you surely were not over reacting. I think I would have had pretty much the same reaction.

Anyway he has moved desks now so you can just try to ignore him and hope that he fades into the background.

Hiya!

It's been another nice, peaceful day. I've been fairly busy, and it's been wonderful not having the rudeness to distract me. I was so productive!

And after a bit of rain, the weather's cooled down considerably, so I have even more things to be pleased about this afternoon.

That, and I'm out of here in about 15 minutes.

*waves to Jem*

If they moved all the colleagues who get on my nerves to the other side of the office... they'd have to give me an office of my own. In fact I've suggested that the 2 people I work closest with, and I, get an office - it will be a bloodbath one of these days and they can't say I haven't warned them.

I sit in a small one by myself, but that doesn't stop people from annoying me.

If you close a door, it's just an invitation for more people to come and pester you than ordinarily would- and I normally have a queue forming outside to begin with. Close a door and then people who were just passing by have to stick their faces in and ask if everything is all right...

Adding to the weirdness of this week, my parents phoned last night (!) and I spoke to my mother. On purpose. (!)

Without getting into all of the backstory... I must've been in a good mood yesterday, to do that.

The more I get to know you the more I find we are so similar. I try my utmost to avoid speaking to my mother - and she only lives 5 miles away from me. She makes me want to move to another country!

Oh, at least mine lives 2000+ miles away (in Oveido, Florida). It's far enough, I guess. Five miles- that would be awful.

I've at least got her to the point where she accepts some responsibility for the things she's done to make me want to avoid dealing with her. Of course she's still got excuses, but it's a start.