Work Wars

Some people are irritating. Others are VERY irritating. The woman across from me at work takes it to a new level. The harder she tries to be friendly and nice, the more irritating she becomes to her co-workers. She is the reason why working in an open space environment is not productive. No one else in the room speaks on a phone. We do research. We write cases. We work. She is constantly on the phone squawking in a voice reminiscent of a dying crow. When she senses the young attractive researchers concentrating hard, she purposefully kicks out her foot causing her little wooden foot bench to scratch the floor like nails against a chalk board. Her face spreads into pure pleasure as she obviously enjoys the attention that she gets from the researchers and their contorted faces as they grab their ears in pain. When the postman comes to drop off the mail, she bubbles up with delight like a virginal schoolgirl. Her voice pierces my eardrums and no matter how high I turn up the music in my headphones, it stabs through to the inner core of my throbbing brain causing me such horrible anguish that my body convulses involuntarily. She traps the poor guy between her desk and the mail tray. He stands there for 15 min listening to her giggle about the email she sent to the wrong person this morning. I am on the verge of throwing up. I cant concentrate. I stare at her hatefully, willing her with my very soul to let the poor guy go. He sees me trying to help him. His eyes show that he too is praying the torture will end. He inches slowly towards the tray. Then she notices my stare. She stops talking abruptly. Her mouth spreads into a smile. I know she’s doing it on purpose.