This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Denise had been working at the “Watchamadoodle” for years. She was a dependable and reliable employee. She also considered herself a team player. She liked her job and the people she worked with well enough. She had been a member of the workforce long enough to know that you can have trouble at any job. So for the most part she was quite satisfied with where she was at.
Denise had been a shy, quiet girl growing up. But as Denise aged, she discovered that there was a sort of rage bubbling just beneath the surface. At times it seemed to erupt and she had no power to contain it. It wasn’t something that started over night. At a former place of employment her dissatisfaction and unhappiness had erupted into a very loud “F#$% you!!!” early one morning. Then she had grabbed her purse and left for the day. She knew that the response was inappropriate and over the top. She later returned to her place of employment and apologized for her outburst. She had hung on there for several months and finally found a new place at the “Watchamadoodle.”
She rarely had these bursts of rage at home. Not to say that they hadn’t happened, but they were very rare. It seemed her antagonism grew as she neared the “Watchamadoodle” each day. She woke each morning happy, for the most part. The short drive didn’t bother her. She sometimes wished it was longer. Denise pulled into the parking lot each morning anticipating that it was going to be a good day. She willed it to be a good day.
Days went by, weeks, and months. Oh there were test upon her frame of mind. But she had learned to shrug off the shortcomings of her co-workers. After all, Denise knew that she was not perfect either. It just seemed everyone was happier at the “Watchamadoodle” if Denise didn’t rock the boat. If she ignored the mistakes. She would laugh when she brought something to someone’s attention. No need to get yours or someone else’s panties in a wad. Just a friendly “Hey look what you did. Try not to do it again.”
For a couple of years Denise had been taking a tiny little pill that helped her keep her rage in check. But Denise was only human and so the tiny little pill only helped to a certain extent. Things always seemed to start to smolder a couple of months before the Watchamadoodle’s busy season. Denise had actually believed for a couple of years that certain people went out of their way this time of year to blow her off and disregard her direction. Denise did not like to be blown off.
She tried to let the little things go. She would correct them herself, if she could. If not she would just enter things the way they were done. It was hard for Denise. She did not understand why people couldn’t follow simple rules. Why could they do things correctly and then suddenly one day just the complete opposite.
They weren’t doing things wrong because Denise said they were doing it wrong. Some things they were doing wrong because Big Brother said they were doing it wrong. Other things were done the way they were done hundred years ago. Not the way they were done in the 21st century. So one day Denise was blamed for not knowing that something was done with chicken scratch on a piece of paper, stapled behind other pieces of paper. Denise could not understand why Watchamadoodle would spend so much money on software and hardware if they were not going to utilize it. Nor did she understand how anyone else was suppose to know about the chicken scratch if the chicken scratcher wasn’t available.
But the straw that broke the camel’s back was the out right lies. An error was made on the sale of a watchamadoodle. When Denise asked about it and why it was done that way she was given a bunch of hooey. A lot of excuses. “I thought this and I thought that.” But the part that really ticked her off was “Oh Well!”
The captain of the Watchamadoodle store was aware of this exchange. He sat less than 10 feet away. But he ignored it. So Denise went back to her office and was distraught. No one in the whole wide Watchamadoodle world cared if things were done correctly. So she emailed the captain a copy of the tax law pertaining to that transaction along with a copy of the invoice. But Denise wishes she had left it alone, because what happened next sent her absolutely over the edge.
She found the captain and the clerk discussing the tax law as if they had just heard of it that day. Now Denise knew for a fact that both of these persons had been presented with this law in the past. No only did Denise know it, she also knew that the same sort of transaction had been done recently and had been done correctly. She could overlook the captain’s forgetfulness, after all he did have a lot on his plate. But the clerk was just misleading the captain and covering her own ass. She for sure was very well aware of the regulation and chose to lie rather than admit to her mistake.
So Denise went back through days of transactions and found the exact same kind of watchamadoodle sale two week prior. This transaction was done correctly by the clerk. Yet the clerk had purported not to know. Denise detested a liar.
Early one morning Denise presented the captain with the correctly processed transaction from two weeks prior. He looked at it with wonder. Denise was not sure if he knew what he was looking at, so she explained it to him. She told the captain that she did not care if he said anything to the clerk or not. She just wanted the captain to know that the clerk did know the law.
And then the captain began to speak and it was not good. Suddenly he was on Denise’s side. This did not make Denise happy, for she knew this was his way of trying to just stop the boat from rocking. He asked questions. Silly, silly questions. Which made Denise’s blood boil. She had her own questions she wanted to ask the captain, but she didn’t. For she knew the answers would be skewed and nothing would be solved. So why put forth the effort.
But Denise did make a statement. She told the captain that she must remind herself that she is here to do a job. She is not here to make friends. She told the captain that her partner has to remind her from time to time that these people she works with are not her friends. That was when the captain became angry. Of all the things that were said, this was the one that needled him. “You are not my friend.”
So he made a snarky comment about Denise’s partner and then asked Denise, “How can you say we aren’t your friends after all we’ve done for you!!” This statement made Denise want to throw back her head and laugh, laugh as loudly as she could. But the worse thing that the captain said was “I only have trouble with you women bitching. I don’t have any problems out of the men.” This made Denise see red. She had worked for the captain for a while. She knew about the personality conflicts among the men. So she knew it was time to go. As Denise walked back to her office she told the captain that maybe he needed to hire a man to do her job.
Denise sits in her office now. She trudges through the paperwork. She no longer cares if the transactions are done correctly. At least now Denise knows where she stands with the captain. She should not share personal things with her coworkers. They just take the stories Denise tells of her home life and twist them around into something loathsome. She is not a valued employee. She is thought of less because she is female.
Denise’s rage has subsided, but it still simmers below the surface.
Denise needs to send her resume, which I’m sure is impressive, to Thingamajig Corporation and to Doohickey, Inc.