Thank God It’s Friday!

I cannot stress enough how glad I am to be working from home today. I left work yesterday not only angry but deeply frustrated.

There are two things I simply cannot abide in the workplace:

1. Rudeness. There is no reason for anyone to be rude to their coworkers. There is never an excuse for it. No matter the situation, there is always a kinder, gentler approach.
2. Lack of communication. There is no reason not to communicate—especially when it’s done intentionally to make someone else’s job more difficult.

These two things often go hand in hand, and when they’re used deliberately to make another person look bad or uncomfortable, it’s just plain sabotage. You cannot tell someone one thing, change your mind without informing them, and then act as though they’re the problem. And to make matters worse, after being rude and uncommunicative, that same person complains about how hard their job is and asks you to do it for them.

I’m all for helping coworkers, but when someone constantly says they’re “too busy” to help with even the smallest task—especially because they’re working on a side job they’re getting paid extra for—it crosses a line. The arrangement is supposed to be simple: make up the time you miss, and don’t work on the second job during your regular hours. Yet somehow, those rules seem to apply to everyone but them.

While these examples come from within my own department, the same rudeness and lack of communication seem to be spreading campus-wide. Every time I have to depend on another department lately, it turns into a source of stress and frustration.

Yesterday, after a week of this nonsense, I’d had enough. My boss got an earful. Her advice? “Stop being such a nice person.” That’s easier said than done. I know how to be assertive, but having to be aggressive only increases my anxiety.

So, if any of my readers happen to know of a university museum looking for an educator or a programs-and-outreach person, please don’t hesitate to reach out. I already have a few applications out there, but it’s time to start looking actively instead of passively.

I have a museum conference coming up soon. While networking isn’t something I usually enjoy, I’m actually fairly good at it when I need to be. As much as I love my institution and my job, it may simply be time to move on.

For now, I’m just grateful it’s Friday and I can breathe again.