Right, so I work at IBM, in the Nordic customer fulfilment team which basically means I process orders and claims from Nordic business partners. It’s almost exactly a month since I started and I’m settling in quite well I think. It’s quite a small team, 4 people, and we’re part of a larger European team of about 10-15 people. The reason I’m writing about all this is because I want to have a little talk about one of the girls in my team. It’s the other Swedish girl, she’s from Gothenburg, but she’s lived in the UK more or less for 6 years.
Since she is the only Swedish person on my team, she’s the person that I talk to the most, and she’s nice, but the more I’m exposed to her, the more I think she must be weird in some way. Or maybe we’re just very different. I’m going to try and give some examples. Something she does that I find really annoying is asking lots of questions. Now there’s nothing wrong with that, but when she’s asking things that I clearly don’t know the answer to, I’m getting a bit annoyed. Like we’re talking about Ryanair and flying and things and she starts asking things about how the plane works, or how the Ryanair booking system works, looking at me like I must have the answer. So I tell her that I have really no idea, she’ll have to ask someone that knows if she wants an answer. And this happen every day! Not with Ryanair every time obviously, it’s something new every day. She does repeat things though, like she’s got some rotation of subjects that she discusses on a set schedule. Kind of like my gran. And she’s something like 30, so it’s not like she’s getting senile or anything.
She also seems to think that our team leader is out to get her, or that he doesn’t like her at least, but I’ve yet to see any proof of this though. I suppose I wouldn’t be too surprised if he was annoyed with her, I know I am. She’s very fond of her mobile camera. she takes a lot of pictures with it and once or twice she’s taken pictures of me without asking, like at lunch time while we were eating or whatever. she’ll just be aiming it at me and looking into the monitor and then she’d put it away. And at first you don’t realise what’s going on, since it’s not really common for someone that’s sitting directly in front of you to just pick up a camera and take a picture without warning. Especially not when it’s a person you known for less than a month and haven’t really gotten close to. So when I realise what she’s up to I ask her a bit baffled “Did you just take a picture of me?” and she sort of looks a little guilty, like she’s 10 and just got caught eating candy before dinner. So I tell her to please not do that and she gets a little quieter, says no more about it and starts talking about the weather. So now I’m constantly suspecting her of trying to snap pictures of me as soon as she’s got her mobile up.
She is weird. she comes off a little daft, but I really can’t tell if she is, or if it’s just how she acts. I’m going to have to continue my investigation.
I love that it’s writing things like this that keeps me occupied at work. I’m writing it in the journal bit of Lotus Notes, which is what we use at work to do a bunch of stuff, so it looks like maybe I’m doing something work related. I suppose I should check now if I have any actual work to do.
Update: Right, it’s only been an hour or so and I already have an update on the subject. I got a query via mail and I wasn’t sure what to do, so I asked our team leader. He helped me and then asked how I was getting on, if I was all right and I told him, yeah, I’m doing all right, I’ll shout if I need any help. So he said yeah, yeah, good, you’re getting on well. So I’m pleased. This is when she butts in and says “maybe that’s cos she’s getting more training than I got.” See this is one of her pet peeves. She’s convinced that I’m getting a lot more help and guidance than she did. So the team leader says, that no, that’s not the case and Sofi’s still getting on better than you. Ouch! He’s not allowed to say that, clearly that’s not something you say to someone that’s working under you, but I secretly agree. Am I allowed to do that? Am I horrible now? Swegirl’s only been here 2 or 3 weeks longer than me and I feel as if I’m catching up on her quite fast.
So right now she’s writing an email to out Adecco representative, complaining about the team leader. She’s genuinely upset, so I don’t really know how to handle this. I’m not that upset by it, but I mean, it’d be awful sitting here every day if she was upset with me. So I’m nodding and agreeing and repeating things she’s said at various previous occasions about the whole thing. I really don’t feel any sort of fire burning in me for this issue, but at the same time I don’t want to seem like I don’t care. Argh!
But I think part of the reason why I can’t bring myself to care is because she’s constantly making me feel bad for getting on quite well with our team leader. At least once a day, usually when we’re having lunch, she’s asking if I’ve noticed how he’s rude to her and things and before today I honestly haven’t and he hasn’t said anything like that to me. So she’s like “Well, you’ll see…” and I’m like (in my head) “Weeeell, maybe not.” cos I’m not going to give him reason to. So yeah, when I say I haven’t noticed it she looks at me like I don’t understand and blah. I don’t know if I can’t be bothered to have lunch with her today cause I’ll not hear the end of it and I’m tired and really not in the mood for it, even if all I have to do is nod and agree.
Update 2: Right, so I feel I have to give this another update, even if it’s not turning out to be the lengthiest blog post in history. I went to lunch with Swegirl, she was looking rather down and upset, so I felt I had to talk to her. Even if I don’t want to get involved I don’t want to see her sitting there being all sad. So we went and she started talking. We went over what had happened earlier and then she began telling me about things that had transpired earlier during her time here. Apparently our team leader sends her little emails telling her she’s not doing the job right, or that she’s not taking care of issues fast enough when they come up. He does this even though he’s sitting right next to her, no walls in between or nothing. He’s never sent me an email unless there’s some info or file I need. And she claims there’s not a day that goes by that he doesn’t talk down to her. To me this just feels quite unreal.
I do not believe she is lying, not at all. She is over at the Adecco office talking to them about it right now. It’s just beyond me how an adult can find it ok to behave like that. Sure, she asks a lot of questions and that, but she’s not stupid and I can’t believe she’s doing that bad a job, and even if she was it should not be handled like this. It just seems like he’s taken a personal disliking to her and won’t let it go.
We’ll see what she says when she gets back, or tomorrow or whatever. I’m off home in less than an hour now so there might not be time to talk to her about it.
