I encountered two incredibly rude people in the past
twenty-four hours. Both of my reactions
surprised me but in markedly different ways.
The first encounter happened at the doctor's office. I have been having a couple of very annoying
and rather frightening medical issues of late, and I was back for round three
of tests and prodding. I waited in line
like a good do-bee and seated myself at reception desk #3 when the girl called
me over. No sooner had she entered my
information when another woman came over
and stood behind my chair, started talking to the receptionist, and the clerk
who had been helping ME actually started helping the idiot standing BEHIND my
chair… while … I … was … still … sitting … right … there.
I was incredibly annoyed, so I stood up and leaned over her
desk and said, "YOU are incredibly RUDE." Then I looked at reception desk #2, and
surprise surprise NO ONE was with the clerk.
I mean, was there really a reason that the woman who took over my spot
couldn't have gone to the OPEN receptionist?
So I said to receptionist #2, "Are you busy? Apparently your coworker is too busy to
actually help the person she called over.
I see that being rude is far more important to her than actually helping
people."
At this point receptionist #3 stood up, apparently able at
THAT moment to stop helping the other woman, and tried to defend herself,
saying the woman had actually been waiting LONGER than I was. Really, sweetheart? Because there IS a place to stand in
line. I smiled and responded, "All
you had to do was either TELL that woman to wait one moment, or you could have
acknowledged ME and asked ME to wait a moment, but you simply started helping
me then you ignored me while I sat right there.
YOU ARE RUDE."
Receptionist #2 smartly agreed with me and apologized
profusely, processing my paperwork in forty-five seconds that had been
apparently too much for receptionist #3 to handle. I have to admit that normally I would have
just sat there and allowed myself to be humiliated, and I was damn proud of
myself for refusing to be treated like a second class citizen in a place where
I pay good money to be treated with some modicum of respect and privacy.
The second incident involved my place of employment. The janitor has been trying to find a spare
moment (we are operating in a pre-construction zone) to install my pencil
sharpener. Today, during his lunchtime
and mine, he found a few minutes to drill the holes in the cement block and
attach the sharpener to the wall. In the
ninety seconds it took him to drill four holes, he somehow managed to offend a
classroom above mine and two doors down.
A woman who is not exactly known for her tact flew into my room and
started yelling at the janitor about how much the noise, all minute-plus of it,
was completely and totally ruining their movie.
What she didn't see was me.
My desk is strategically located so that you can see me when the door is
wide open or completely closed, but you cannot see me if the door is open
halfway. After berating and completely
emasculating a member of the janitorial staff, she spotted me sitting at my desk and seething quietly
over her intrusion. How dare she, a
newbie, enter my domain and complain about routine maintenance noise that took
less than two minutes?
Yet for all of my chest puffing now, what I didn't do was
react then. Oh, it's probably the right
thing in the long run. Lord knows I do
enough line-walking to get fired at least once a week, and arguing with someone
who is probably friends with my boss and my boss's boss and my boss's boss's
boss would've hurt me in the long run.
But what I truly wanted to say to her was, "If I EVER hear you
talking to a member of the janitorial staff like that again, and if you EVER
stamp your way into my room again, I will rip your fucking ugly-ass face right
off your over-inflated cranium."
God, I would've paid myself money to pull off that
move. I would've patted myself on the
back for weeks to come had I said that, and I would've been doing so from the
luxury of my own living room after being fired.
Instead, I just stared at her and let her catch her breath
because once she saw me bearing witness to her intolerant rant to whom she
obviously considers "the help," she tried for eight long and painful
minutes to backtrack, saying how wonderful it was I had a pencil sharpener and
how wonderful the pencil sharpener was and how she would come down from her
room just to use … my … pencil … sharpener.
Bitch. Charlatan.
Not a chance in Hell.
Ah, there. NOW I feel
better. And I still have my job. Amazing how that works sometimes.
