A trip to the psychiatrist's office

That is what working at my office is like. More specifically, when dealing with the female partner I realize that she needs to take a trip there. But, she's probably too old to make any changes for the better at this point, so the people that have to work with her just have to deal with her insecurities and issues.

She has this childlike need to always be the center of attention. She will take ANY topic and turn the focus on herself. For instance, one of the girls in my office had a miscarriage last summer, which is a really awful thing. She had to tell the partners because she was going to be out of the office for a while. When she came back my female partner (I need to come up with a name for her. Let's just use FP until I think of something more fitting) goes into her office and says she thinks SHE (FP) might be pregnant (even though she's in her late 40s and has had a hysterectomy). She just needs everything to be about her. I can't stand it.

She also talks FOREVER. It is impossible to get out of a conversation with her. I told my secretary that if she ever notices I'm trapped in FP's office for more than 10 minutes to tell me I have a phone call so I can get out of FP's office, the boring conversation about HER, and back to other things that are more important.

I think the problem may be that she has no friends and she tries to make the associates in the office her friends. And I am not going down that road with her. So, because she thinks we're her friends she talks to us about all kinds of inappropriate things like: all of the procedures she's getting at the dermatologist's office (and believe me, there are not enough procedures in the world to right that wrong), that she wants breast implants, what alcoholic drinks she orders when she goes out with her perv husband, where to buy cheap clothing (why would I want to know that?), the male partner's past affairs, and his current marital state (apparently the wife doesn't give him sex anymore). She's also told people in the office that she and her husband are swingers. OMG if she acted her age maybe people in this office would have some respect for her.

And since she has neither friends nor self esteem, she overcompensates by attempting to make herself look important at work. She sent out an e-mail today telling everyone to turn their computers off when they leave for the day, even though she is usually the only one in the entire office that leaves her computer on overnight. And all week she has been on my ass about some stupid project that I can't bill for, asking me what the status is. I usually wait at least 24 hours before I respond because: A--I can't stand taking orders from incompetent people and B--my guy partner, the one whose firm this actually is doesn't even bother me about "the status "of certain assignments I've been given. He leaves me alone to do my work. And I get it done in a timely manner because he doesn't bother me about it and C--I've been told she acts this way with all of the new associates, trying to assert her authority over them.

So, since I've already decided that I pretty much don't care about making a career at this firm, I've also decided to not allow her to bully me with her requests for "status reports." So, yesterday she asked for a "status report" on an assignment that she gave me. I told her that after my secretary finished the revisions, I would start on the substantive work. I'm working on it right now and I'm realizing that her suggestions are ridiculous, unimportant, and a waste of time. Her writing is horrible and I feel like I should be revising her work NOT the other way around! Nevertheless I'm making these dumb revisions because it gives me something to do. And when I'm done with the revisions at the end of the day I'll probably hold on to the assignment until Friday. But since she made up some BS appointment (we share a secretary and I've confirmed with the sec that the appointment is BS) and she will be "out of the office" on Friday I guess she won't see it until Monday.

The fact that I am deliberately doing this is pathetic, isn't it. I just can't stand her. The other girls said they did the same thing. And, albeit pathetic, it's kind of fun too.

I don't think I can stay here until the end of the year.

I know that was a really long post, but if you got to the end of it, thanks for reading. I will try not to complain about work for the rest of the week. Ok?