The bad co-worker

I try not to write about work very much for a few reasons. One of them is that what I do is pretty boring. The moment I tell someone that I work in billing you can just see the thought bubble rise from their head saying, "Quick find a way to walk away from this guy before he bores me to death." Another reason is that the company I work for has a very specific policy on what you can and can't post on blogs, forums, and chat rooms. So to stay on the safe side I try not to say anything all. There are other reasons as well I post about my job, but it's not worth getting into here.

But on to the bad co-worker. Everyone has at some time or another had a co-worker that they couldn't stand, was mean, obnoxious, or a horrible employee. I've had a co-worker at every job I have had the easily fits at least one of those criteria. In this case my co-worker is mean, moody, and has a pretty crappy work ethic. For simplicity lets call this person Jordan just in case one of my other co-workers decides to check this post out.

First, I want to point out that my dislike for Jordan is not exclusive. Most of the other employees on my team have at the very least voiced some of the same concerns to either me or my supervisor. The most common of these is that Jordan tends to work around 30 hours a week. I'm not meaning that (s)he goofs off ten hours a week. What I'm saying is that Jordan is only at work for about 30 hours a week. That's about 150 hours of work that (s)he has missed so far this year, and that's not including days that Jordan has called in sick or taken vacation. No, that 150 hours only includes the amount of time (s)he has missed due to leaving work early. The other people on my team are baffled by both Jordan's audacity to do this, as well as the fact that (s)he continues to get away with it despite numerous complaints to our boss.

If this was the only beef I had with Jordan I could simply pass it off as (s)he is a slacker. But unfortunately that is not the only problem. Jordan is mean and flat out hateful as well. (S)he has no problem let other people know that they have done something dumb and tries to rub it in to their face. The only problem is, that the majority of the time Jordan is the one who is actually wrong. However, if you disagree Jordan even when (s)he is wrong you are likely to hear him/her laughing at you a few cubes away after the conversation is over about how dumb you are and how much Jordan would like to "punch you in face."

To be fair, one out of every five conversations go pretty smoothly. These conversations are no different than most of the conversations with most of your co-workers: cordial, short, and ubiquitous. Again this is the problem. You never know which Jordan you are going to meet in any given interaction. (S)he is so moody that in the morning and afternoon you could get yelled at, but at mid-day have a nice casual conversation. At the very least this kind of behavior keeps you on your feet.

So, you might ask why this person hasn't been fired? Well for the first two years that Jordan and I worked together (s)he was the rock star of the team. Jordan was able to get almost twice as much work out the door compared to any other employee including myself. During that time (s)he worked a regular 40 hour week, and was slightly less moody. The mood swings seemed to last for a day versus hours. That seemed to change in this last Fall when myself a different co-worker started to become the new rock stars. Once the crown was removed I think resentment set in and its been down hill ever since.

I'm sure there are worse co-workers out there. Some may say the a gassy or smelly co-worker would be worse. I have worked with both of those and I can safely say that's not the case. Both are annoying, but bad personalities are harder to deal with. A mean and hateful co-worker can't just take a shower or beano to be easier to deal with. No, a mean and hateful co-worker is usually only out of your life once you or they change jobs. Unfortunately I don't see either happening in the near future.