Friday morning is when the book of appointments opens where, if you want, you can book appointments to use this 'instrument'.
So i do that. But i don't book it for the rest of my group (this machine is in another department BTW so you have to walk there, it takes a couple of mins) and I was never ever required to do so. If you want time you yourself go to book an appointment.
Until last week apparently bcz some of my colleagues missed out (the machines can get *really* busy in the summer) so the guy who runs the instrument and opens this book tries to get me (this happened yesterday afternoon, and a colleague overhears this exchange) to ask around and see if there are people in my department who want some time. This takes me by surprise bcz i thought getting appointments isn't much of a problem (if you come in at 9: 30, like i do it isn't. really).
and anyway, I'm not asking around etc bcz a) i could forget a person, b) I might not need it every week and c) I work in another lab as well at times so I'm not there some of the time.
Friday morning: I book my appointments, the person tells me to book some for my colleagues so I tell him I don't know what time they would want it. He tells me to tell them that the book is open and it isn't filled yet.
And so i got there and I tell them this and this same person overhearing that conversation yesterday afternoon blows up at me: she tells me to 'pull my finger out' (I laugh), she is really angry: why can't you book sometime blah blah and then she starts telling me off that i was late by one hour when the whole group had to clean the lab (I laugh some more, there was a reason for that for my late-ness but i didn't bother explaining).
At the end I just tell her that *this* (barking at me) isn't going to work. she walks out.
In the end a couple of my other colleagues talk to me and are nice abt it and we work out a solution and I book a couple of afternoons for them.
Next friday: I have a meeting so someone will have to book sometime for me. I haven't told anyone yet when i do they better 'pull their finger out' and do it ho ho.
But the thing is I just laughed a bit: i did bcz I was surprised that someone (beside my brother) could get angry at me (no one really has), I didn't know she had 'issues'.
but the main thing is that i had never seen this side of her before so it just caught me by surprise (we weren't really buddies or any of that so maybe i shouldn't be surprised).
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:21 (twenty-two years ago)
Sounds like you handled it with a clear head, Julio. I don't laugh all the time, it depends on the context i.e. who's getting angry and whether or not it's about something important.
― hstencil, Friday, 20 June 2003 15:28 (twenty-two years ago)
i thought it wasn't a massive big deal but to some people it is and maybe i should have treated it as such instead of laughing but how do you deal with someone who's raging at you.
I thought of keeping quiet but i just couldn't.
― Julio Desouza (jdesouza), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:35 (twenty-two years ago)
I have done this in the past, it's classic because it just pisses them off more. I had this birthday get-together for my friends at this restaurant when I was in high school, and these two guys showed up and threatened to beat me up because I hadn't invited them (WTF?). I just laughed because I was at a party WITH MY FRIENDS, meaning if there was somekind of physical altercation, I would have had like 10 people behind me. Plus, this guy was letting a girl half his height and weight hold him back. It was funny. The point is, people sometimes get mad about shit so stupid that you have to laugh at them.
― NA. (Nick A.), Friday, 20 June 2003 15:41 (twenty-two years ago)
Er - my David lost his job over laughing at someone who was mad at him (well, in a very roundabout way, that is). His supervisor had just reviwed some edits he'd made on one of her reports, and claimed that he was being nit-picky and a know-it-all (he probably was). And she stamped over to his cubicle, got down on her knees, and grabbed all of the garbage from his can, looking for the hard copy of his editing remarks - he sat there stupified. Then she stomped off, leaving a trail of dropped garbage papers down the hall behind her (Hansel and Gretel?). And David sat there and realized that he had no idea if etiquette required him to follow her and pick-up the papers and then give them to her with a "I think you dropped these" or if he should just pretend that there wasn't this line of papers coming out from his cubicle and stretching down the hall. Faced with the absurdity of his situation he started to laugh - but it came out like a maniacal chortle of glee.
(His position was 'eliminated' a week or two later. Coincidence?)
― I'm Passing Open Windows (Ms Laura), Friday, 20 June 2003 20:01 (twenty-two years ago)