Irrational Irretation

Location: Work
Listening to: Some pre-football thing on TV

Ok, so, I'm about to let my crazy out. Beware!

We all have little things that irk us. A lot of them don't make much sense to other people. I'm sure everyone can think of at least one thing that they hate, even though they know it's ridiculous to hate it.

For me, that one thing is other people doing my work.

I am a very independent worker. When I'm given responsibilities, I like to do them myself. If I need help, I'll ask for it, but if it's something I can easily get done myself, I want to do it that way. By. My. Self.

This makes group projects and other group-work scenarios kind of a nightmare for me. I turn into kind of a control freak. I'd much rather be doing the entire project (or whatever the case may be) by myself. Usually it's something I could easily crank out on my own, so having to divvy up jobs with people who may or may not do them (or do them to my level of satisfaction) causes me a lot of stress.

But group projects are temporary evils. They only spring up a few times a year and only last for a few weeks. I can tolerate them long enough to ensure I get a good grade on my part of the project. Usually I can compartmentalize enough that I detach myself from whatever my partners are responsible for.

Lately, though, I've been in a situation of being stuck with an overly helpful person who I cannot get rid of. I'm an office assistant for a small business. My office manager used to be this super awesome girl named Jane. She was maybe 6 or 7 years older than me and she was super fun and nice. It was great going to work, because she was so much fun to work with.

But then Jane's husband got a job several hours away and she moved. She was replaced by an older woman named Jo. Jo is very nice as well, but she doesn't let me do my job. I don't have a lot of responsibilities as it is, but she continues to do small tasks for me. Tasks that I have to do every day. And that I've done every day in the year I've worked here. With no help from anyone, because they are so utterly simple that a monkey could do them. I have plenty of time to get all of my closing tasks done and I always do them.

The whole issue started a week or two ago. One of my closing duties is to lock up the money from the cash drawer. In the morning, Jo unlocks it and puts it back. One morning she came in and the money was already out and the drawer was open. When I got into work later that afternoon, she gave me a lecture about how I need to make sure to lock everything, because it would be terrible if something were to get stolen.

Except, I had locked up the money. One of our other co-workers had unlocked it before Jo got in because they needed to use it for something. Jo and I may be the ones responsible for putting away or taking out the money, but everyone we work with knows where it's kept and how to get it if needed.

Since then, she's condescendingly told me she will take care of locking certain file cabinet drawers that have valuable information inside (even though I've locked them without fail for the last year) because she wants to make sure it's her responsibility if something were to get left out or lost. She also always asks me if I want her to back up the computers (one of my nightly duties) before she leaves (several hours before we close).

No matter how many times I tell her she doesn't need to do any of my jobs (as politely and nicely as possible) she always asks.

I know it's a ridiculous thing to get frustrated over, because she's probably just trying to be nice, but it just rubs me the wrong way. It always feels like she's asking me if she can do these things because she doesn't trust me to do them on my own. Even though I've worked here roughly nine months longer than she has.

Alright. Rant over. Are there any weird things that annoy you for no reason? Even though you know it's completely ridiculous that they do? I'd love to hear about it (it'd make me feel like less of a crazy person, for sure).

Also, please check out my new book review blog! I've got several reviews up (one is a review of an advance copy I won a few weeks ago!) and I'd love some feedback!