Wednesday, July 30, 2008

If you're happy and you know it...whistle

I work at a very interesting place with some very interesting people. Let me first say, the team I am a part of and work directly with is made up of amazingly talented and capable individuals. And then there are all the other folks who share the office space. They are a little eccentric to say the least. It's amazing the weirdness that the field of social work attracts. Seriously...

There is one guy who I am pretty sure will go down in history as "the whistler." He walks the halls day in and day out whistling the same tune. At first I thought it was refreshing that someone was so cheerful...now I think it's NOT refreshing. It is bizarre. He is ALWAYS whistling. My adorable office mate said something today about the whistler that is so fitting. To quote her, "What is with the whistling? It's like he is walking around screaming I'M HAPPY! LOOK I'M HAPPY!" like he's trying to convince the world that he's not hiding some secret disdain or darker emotion. This same character has a PhD but told us that he wasn't smart enough to include a simple date on a pretty significant document. The guy can't take accountability for making a mistake...and he called me sweetie...pretty sure that's not okay.

The lack of accountability is a theme among the other team. Not to mention the lack of appropriate boundaries. There was a significant crossing of boundaries recently that ended in my office mate eating some very unfortunate pie. A client of ours was somehow allowed past the front desk with a "gift" for all who have helped him so much. Don't worry if the gift wasn't a feast. Seriously, so much food. Now let me explain that it is pretty unethical to accept gifts from cleints and this was clearly a more unusual, and thus more questionable, offering. It never should have happened. But it did and my co-worker ate some of a chocolate pie. Immediately after partaking she started to feel a little weird. I reminded her that she had just eaten food prepared by an unknown client. Not wise! Not much later it was determined that said client was pretty well high on cocaine and delivered the gift in his altered state. So who knows what was in the pie... The incident is now known as the "cocaine pie incident." And it all comes from the crazy front desk lady who calls everyone "hun" and is way too informal and personal with all the clients she comes in contact with. It is definitely not okay.

And that's not even addressing the craziness of the clients...

5 comments:

Lynda/Mom said...

Wow! You're up late and I'm up later and I don't want to explain myself so I won't ask. Welcome!! I am delighted to have such a great way to keep track of you and the rest of the family that is on board. I am looking forward to hearing about your new life in Colorado. Aunt Lynda

MaryAnn said...

Sandy - glad to see you have joined the blogging world. It is nice to hear what you are up to.

Strupp Family said...

YAY! I'm so glad you're blogging. There are few people who I LOVE to read the things they write--and you're one of them. You just have a great way of telling stories. I hate going back and reading my own posts because they make no sense and the grammar is bad, or there are to many "but"s and "so"s. Love the story, love that you're blogging. Don't be one of those that only update like every six months. I check my bloggers frequently and I don't want you to become one I have to skip over because you never update :)

D. said...

Yay! I'm not the only single blogger in the family! How fantastic. You are funny, just not as funny as me! LOL!

Anonymous said...

I love crazy work stories! I remember on my first day at work some kid told me about the joys of snorting Tylenol to get rid of headaches.