Why Hast Thou Forsaken Me?

Have you ever worked with someone who gets distracted from the job at hand when a squirrel runs by the window? Someone who spends down time vacantly staring at a wall, slack jawed, brain making the kind of ticking noises you hear when an engine's cooling down? A person with the best intentions in the world and absolutely, positively no way of making any of them come true?

That is my life.

I am a nice person.

Actually, I'm not. I am, however, very passive aggressive. That means when someone behaves like this I grind my teeth until they hurt, but I'd rather suffer than confront them. Instead, I cut them out of things and try to maneuver them out of the organization, or at least my part of it. In this part of the world, that's how most people deal with conflict.

I can't take it anymore, though. One person, who has been told not to do something at least fifty times in the last three years, something that has the potential to seriously harm our organization, did it again today.

"Please don't do this," I've said.

"You really need to stop doing this," I've said.

"Stop it," I've said.

"Please, I'm begging you," I've said.

To no avail. Today, it was done again. Not from maliciousness, just from pure and total incompetence. I weep.

Soon, I am going on an extended business trip. I will miss my family, my friends, my dog. While I'm gone, this thing will be done again and again and again. I won't be there to see it. I can't wait to leave.