Toxic co-workers and the Curse of the Spurge!

I’ll keep it brief.

I work for a government agency: have worked for said agency for over thirty years. For the most part of that career, the work environment had been relaxed and respectful.  At times it was even fun.  

The less said about  the change in my work environment the better.  Some people, for whatever reason—mostly having to do with what brought joy to their black, shriveled hearts, got unpleasant  and insulting . The level of condescension was intolerable and the quality of my work was sneered at and belittled.   Snarky emails became an everyday assault on my serenity.

Smiling at denigration was never my strong suit, and I refused to play along.  When, at my next performance evaluation, I was tut-tutted (mildly) about my lack of promptness, I chose to inform my supervisor that I was no longer going to play nice with these people.  That elicited from him a long litany of the contractors who had quit over  their own wonderful treatment at the hands of my detractors.  The list was long and our staff was short. I was begged to be patient and make the best of the situation.

So I did.  I decided upon a backyard makeover.  It was early Spring 2006, the perfect time to begin such a project. I began looking  at gardening websites and magazines.  I began to dream.

I was desperate to feel happy again.  As my poor spouse can attest, I was snarling and bristling at every domestic slight.  I started messing around with PowerPoint, which was the only semi-drawing program I had access to. 

 I found an old empty GSA-issue ledger book and began writing of my frustration and composing crude sketches of the backyard (the “BY”) and embryonic stabs at re-tooling  its aspect and appearance.

The blank book was, to be honest, not exactly empty.  It contained a rather earnest paragraph some one composed many years previous detailing a disturbing dream they’d had.  I wish I had saved the page, but I wanted the new journal to be mine, and mine alone.  I did remember enough to write about it later.  I embellished, of course, but at the time I was not only planning the new landscape but banishing demons as well

 

Next:  The Seven Stations of the Cross (and maybe I’ll get to the Spurge)