Little Mistake, Big Headache

*WARNING* Angry rant below *WARNING*

I made a mistake yesterday at work. The first of it’s kind. Something small, something most people would think of as “Oh, well just avoid it in the future and all will be well.”

I handed someone the wrong set of blueprints when they came in yesterday. He noticed when he got back to his office, turned around and came to get the ones he should have gotten. Inconvenient, yes, not at all ideal, of course, should I avoid it in the future? Obviously.

But you’d swear that I was running around handing off the wrong stuff to every person who came in the way everyone reacted.

The gentleman in question came back during my lunch break, otherwise it just would have been laughed off by me and that would have been the end of it. But I wasn’t in the office so someone else had to deal with it. Then they told the Project Manager what had happened.

Apparently there was a meeting.

He’s so mad right now he won’t even talk to me. I asked him a question yesterday and he sort of barked an answer at me. I was in tears by the time I was leaving work.

People kept asking “Are you overwhelmed? Do you not understand the work you’re getting? Do you need someone to help explain stuff? This is really important Kelly, we can’t afford these kinds of mistakes.” I couldn’t turn around without getting lectured by someone else about focusing on the things at hand and not goofing off.

I packaged up and shipped out 56 sets of plans and specs yesterday by myself, I made 1 mistake and now no one trusts me. I’m aware that because of my young age I’m constantly being judged and doubted and one mistake will immediately drop me back down to the “well she’s still just a kid, so obviously she doesn’t care” standing, but I’ve been here for a year, my review in June was stellar and shining on all counts. Hell, I got a $1.50 raise they think I’m doing such a good job! I didn’t deserve yesterday at all.

In the meantime, my boss has been out all week because his wife has appendicitis and there were complications from surgery and she had to stay in the hospital long term. This left me, the other woman I work with and the Jackass without supervision, since he’s our boss. Obviously I and the other woman were fine, but the Jackass, whom you might remember as the guy who plans meetings just to get the free stuff, he’s been wandering the office with his thumb up his ass, not doing a damn thing. Yesterday morning while I was eating my muffin he kept walking up and staring at me until I asked him if he needed something from me. He’s so damn creepy.

He actually passed off some of his work to a young man we hired recently. Said young man has more than enough to do on his own, but the Jackass doesn’t care. He probably lied and said so-and-so said he had to help with the workload.

Yesterday, while I was scrambling to finish packaging up my 56 UPS’s before 4 he was roaming around the office, just kinda watching people work. Actually had the nerve to say “Boy… what a slow day huh Kel?” while I’m running around like a psychopath cramming drawings into UPS bags. This morning I watched as he pulled a group of faxes off of the fax, looked through them and then dropped them onto the counter rather then taking 4 steps forward and sticking them into the people’s bins.

But there won’t be a meeting about that, I’m sure. Jackass.

My mantra for the day: Ren Faire tomorrow. Ren Faire tomorrow. I’ll be Captain Kelly Conner Sink-or-Swim tomorrow. (Captain Lee for short.) Ren Faire tomorrow. Ren Faire tomorrow. (And Great America on Sunday. Woohoo!)

Side note – I got my grandparents and my aunt to watch Pirates of the Caribbean last night and they all loved it.