28. Get The Message, Stephanie
This story actually begins two years ago. I work at a university doing somewhat specialized technical and project support type stuff for a large department. I’ve got this co-worker we’ll call Stephanie. Stephanie is one of those people that demands everything now because she’s Very Important.
A couple of years ago I ran afoul of Stephanie because I was out of the office on leave—that had been approved by my supervisor and the department, mind you. I was out for two weeks taking care of my mom after she had surgery due to cancer—which I was very open about because I didn’t want to deal with people asking how I enjoyed my vacation.
There’s no way Stephanie didn’t know why I was out. She went to my office and was told I wasn’t in, and she was upset because I needed to help her now. So she called my personal cellphone. We have a list of people’s personal cellphones in case of emergencies like, y’know, a campus shooter, not “I need something done”.
And she called again. And again. And again. Finally, I picked up and she ripped me a new one because I needed to answer her Very Important Question. I told her I was out on leave to care for my mom and her response was something to the effect of “It’s not my problem your mom’s sick.
I need this taken care of now and you’re holding things up. I’m going to report you for never being at work”. Never mind the fact that other people could have helped her. Or the fact that this was the first time I used any leave in ages.
And she did, in fact, report me to the Dean to whom I sent my approved leave forms and my call log showing she’d called me I believe ten times in a row. Stephanie got a tiny punishment for that incident. Fast forward to now. I’m leaving for my dream job…hurray!
I sent an email out to the department mailing lists saying “Hey, I’m going, it’s been a pleasure”. The thing is they’re not sure they’re going to fill my role in an effort to save money, which people are pretty upset about because I support a lot of things.
However, because most of my coworkers are logical and awesome people that anger is directed at the college and not at me. Stephanie is not logical. So, I get a Facebook Messenger message from Stephanie, who I’m not FB friends with.
I accepted the message out of morbid curiosity mostly. And the entitlement continues folks. I’m selfish for leaving my job because of all the department has done for me. So apparently I owe it to them to stay or something—haha what? I especially like that her spelling degrades as the messages go on.
I’m sure she was just on mobile or something but I’d like to imagine she worked herself into such a rage that she couldn’t type. I won’t miss Stephanie.
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