When co-workers drive you insane...

Has anyone ever had a co-worker that drives you completely up the wall? Or even worse, have the ghost of your predecessor haunt you?

I do. This older lady (must be at least 30 years older than me) handles our calendar and comics page. Every week, without fail, she comes up to my desk and gripes about me not putting the Prizeweek Puzzle (something I’m in charge of) on the page. Normally I can’t do this because of three reasons: a) The results of the previous week’s contest have not been determined. b) The ad people have not given us the page yet. c) The lady herself has the page open and I can’t access it!

Since I won’t get the results of the contest until Friday, I go along with my other work (including designing a great cover for our holiday planner :D). She comes up to my desk with my editor in tow and snipes at me again about not putting the puzzle on Saturday’s page. The past two weeks the lady’s been extremely surly about anything I ask her to do - change the calendar, actually STICK to calendar deadline, etc. I don’t think I’ve been rude about it. I use “please,” “thank you” and “yes ma’am.”

Thankfully my editor didn’t pin anything on me. She just wanted to make sure the lady knew who was dealing with the puzzle. I think the lady’s problem with me is that I don’t act like my predecessor. First of all, I actually design, which she didn’t. But I also like to stick to deadlines and don’t tolerate her adding stuff to the page after I’ve already imported the huge calendar and formatted it! So I’m not a 50-something-year-old lady who likes reporting on tea parties and who wears the latest style hat. YAWN. I’m me and I’m damn proud of it!

Still, this co-worker is driving me up the wall! Everytime I’m nice to her, it just gets worse. Ah well. Good thing I only deal with her a couple times a week.