Comments on: BE A BITCH: Workplace Edition

By: sigh

sigh — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 10:37:54 +0000

all, thank you for this.

i started a brand new job in a brand new to me field a month ago. my boss is a brilliant craftsman who is also kind of a dick and kind of a bully who micromanages me and makes my job harder than necessary because he doesn’t understand business and he isn’t a great leader. he treats the boy employee (another dick who leaves — sorry, left, won’t be happening again — trash in my car) differently. lots of dudely privilege happening, combined with a whole ethno-cultural us-vs-them thing.

i heard that he was bitching about me over the weekend so now i am preparing to defend myself in our next daily meeting. a little voice inside me said maybe i should google “workplace” and “bitch” and lo and behold i suddenly feel a whole lot more confident. time for me to woman up.

By: Reader Request: In Praise of Great Bosses - The Pursuit of Harpyness

Reader Request: In Praise of Great Bosses - The Pursuit of Harpyness — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 16:32:27 +0000

[...] myself, I always stopped to think “What Would K Do?” Now that some of my former assistants have gone on to become managers themselves, I know that they’ve benefited indirectly from K’s kindness and [...]

By: May

May — Thu, 14 May 2009 20:11:06 +0000

Oh, also, this post naturally reminds me of the 30 Rock episode where Lutz calls Liz a “cunt,” and then she’s too nice to her staff, and then she watches a marathoon of Designing Women and starts blabbering on about how you “do not mess with a sugar baker woman!”

Man, that episode ruled.

By: May

May — Thu, 14 May 2009 19:57:29 +0000

I am a bitch at work all the damn time. But I think I get too defensive/emotional usually and then it ruins everything. But sometimes I lay down the law in an objective way, and then it’s awesome.

By: FashionablyEvil

FashionablyEvil — Thu, 14 May 2009 14:23:16 +0000

@Becky Sharper: all I know is that if I ever spoke to a client that way, I would be promptly removed from the project and possibly fired if it were part of a larger pattern of behavior (which that email is).

By: baraqiel

baraqiel — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:32:05 +0000

@BeckySharper: Um…I’d probably still do it. It’d be worth it to sit the guy down and tell him *exactly* why he was going to have to look for another job right now. But then again, like I say, I’m a huge bitch.

@PhDork: Having two friends who had serious breakdowns this semester I have a little more sympathy for this, but on the order of getting a withdraw instead of a failing grade, for example. But, just for you, FaithandBegorrah, I’m going to call one of my male teachers a bitch in his course evaluation.

By: PhDork

PhDork — Thu, 14 May 2009 03:30:49 +0000

The sad thing, funnyface, is that they’re write non-glowing, but non-truthful letters for her in order a) to be rid of her, and 2) to protect themselves/the uni from legal action. Smart search committees will be able to read between the lines, but no one is going to come right out and say “this one’s a flake.”

By: vegkitty

vegkitty — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:36:28 +0000

Oooh bitchiness…

I was an RA this past semester. Believe me, during finals week I had to yell (actually yell) at people who were riding skateboards in the hallway at 1 AM (yep, that really happened) or just brought people upstairs when they had to be checked in.

It sucked, but c’est la vie. If I’m doing a job, I’m doing it right.

By: funnyface

funnyface — Thu, 14 May 2009 01:18:07 +0000

I’m an admin to a university art department, and the only people I supervise are student workers and life models. That said, I have a strict three strikes, you’re out policy– you flake on me three times, you’re never modeling for us again, period. I was a bit of a bitch when a girl called 30 minutes before a class was supposed to start and cancelled on me for the third time for “personal reasons.” It was sorta like “O RLY? Well, this is the third time you’ve done this to me so you can bet we won’t be calling you to book any more modeling jobs!”

The part that blows my mind is, doesn’t Young Dude think he’ll need your friend’s reference in ORDER to advance? We have a prof in the department like that. My main interaction with her has been dealing with her full voicemail and physical mailbox, seeming inability to return calls and voicemails, student workers complaining that she was yet again no help in putting together the latest student show, and barrage of students complaining to me that they can’t get in tough with her. Thing is, she’s a visiting professor, and she was passed over for a permanent job which was basically hers to lose because she’s just done such a crap job as a visiting prof. And yet she’s asked several faculty members for references for her next job. Um, what the heck do you think they’re going to write?

By: Sh

Sh — Wed, 13 May 2009 22:18:50 +0000

Such an important lesson for every age. When I wasn’t home at the end of a sleep over I missed an exchange between my daughter (10) and her friend. Daughter yells, “I do not like your behavior! You have ruined my birthday party and I want you to leave!” When my husband tried to smooth things over (and reprimand her for yelling) my daughter replied, “Wait til mom gets here, she’ll be proud of me!” and I was. That act of yelling changed her that day, she is much more confident and able to handle conflict. Here’s to hoping it lasts through middle school!

Now, I gotta make me some bacon cake!