I was so excited when I started my first professional job at a human resources company. All my previous jobs were temporary positions in hospitality that entailed long hours, low pay and a lot of fussy customers. So I was ecstatic, to say the least, to be finally working in a professional environment with professional colleagues. My role was administration support and office manager.
My first week was great. Everyone was so friendly and easy going. Within a few months I had mastered all my tasks and responsibilities and I was effectively running the office.
My role required me to offer administrative support right down to menial tasks such as maintaining the stock of staff consumables like coffee and toilet paper. At first I was happy to do this as it was part of my job but as the months went by I started to notice how fussy and petty the staff became.
At first they started to comment on the way I would do certain tasks, so I would change to suit them. Next the brand of coffee I was buying wasn’t good enough. Then they turned into office divas complaining about the ply level of the toilet paper I was ordering and right down to the office stationery paper being ‘too white’ for them. I couldn’t believe the complaints I was hearing. These people were outweighing the fussiness of my past customers in hospitality. Everything I did or bought, there was something wrong with it.
One particular day I had to organise an annual office luncheon for the Melbourne Cup. I had heard about the disaster of last year’s event from the previous office assistant. She was so traumatised on the day that she actually had to be sent home because she couldn’t stop crying. At first I thought the story may have been slightly exaggerated and I laughed it off. But on the day of my planned Melbourne Cup event I came to realise it was not far from the truth at all.
I had organised a huge feast for the staff, and a sweep. It looked great and I didn’t think anyone could find any fault with my fantastic spread. Well, to start with my brand of orange juice was too sweet, then my muffins were too small and didn’t have enough choc-chips, I hadn’t organised enough sweeps for the day and to top it off certain staff members decided to have a little tantrum because the sandwich rolls I had organised didn’t contain enough chicken options and they refused to eat any other variety. Considering I had organised every other sandwich filling under the sun I thought that they were being totally ridiculous and petty to be making such a big deal about it. But apparently their tantrum was warranted!
According to them, I had not provided enough food options. So the three staff members who had their little fit about the food requested that I go and buy them chicken salads as they couldn’t eat any of the other food options I had organised.
At first I found it funny that they actually expected me to leave the office to buy them something else after all that I had planned. After all, this was a luncheon that management had paid for as a reward for staff and at the end of the day I still had so much work to catch up on after I organised the event. But much to my surprise my manager asked me to buy the additional salads for the staff. I couldn’t believe it. I was fuming. The assistant who organised the luncheon last year could see my frustration and gave me a sympathetic look.
So, off I went to buy their salads. The whole time I was in my car driving to the salad bar I was fuming. You could practically see the steam coming out of my ears. I was so frustrated and angry that people could be so petty and immature. And I started questioning what job I hadn’t gotten myself into. I had never, ever worked with such ridiculous people and I was not used to such petty behaviour from staff. Customers yes, but not staff.
Well, I bought their silly salads and was still reeling with anger when I saw my manicure kit on the passenger side floor. I had gone to my friend’s house the night before and had a girly night and the kit was still in the car. I opened the manicure set and a wicked thought came to mind. I started clipping my toenails and nails and then cut them into tiny little pieces. I had no polish on so my nail clippings were natural looking. I then sprinkled the clippings in each of the salads. I mixed them around and you could not tell the difference. I couldn’t believe what I had just done but I felt so satisfied, as much as I hate to admit it.
I brought the salad back and their sad little faces lit up as soon as they saw their food. One of them made a remark that now they could ‘finally eat some decent food’. Whatever remorse I’d had flew out the window once I heard that snide remark. They started eating their chicken Caesar salads eagerly, and slowly but surely a little smile started creeping on my face. The other assistant notice me smirking and asked me what I was smiling at. I quickly stopped and just replied that I was happy with the turnout and that everyone looked to be enjoying themselves.
My manager agreed and commended me on a job well done. Everyone chimed in and thanked me for my efforts, then went back to work. I was left to clean up but couldn’t have been happier. As I went to collect the empty salad containers not a morsel of food remained. The salad must have been tasty.
I am a pretty quiet person and normally very mindful of work rules and ethics. But I believe I was pushed over the edge. I had never dealt with such demanding and particular people and didn’t know how to handle it. I would never do something like that again. Since then, I have been able to express my frustration with some of their demands. But on that day I was still new and finding my place in the office culture. I didn’t want to disrupt things and make my time harder than it had to be. All in all, everyone had a great day at that Melbourne cup celebration … and I won the sweep! So everyone was happy in the end.
Picture posed by model
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