The man is trying my patience.

April writing...

I consider myself to be a pretty patient person...no, let me rephrase that. I am REALLY patient. Whether it's the fact that most impatience leads to some form of conflict and I avoid conflict like the plague or just the simple fact that I am patient because I am such a nice person...

either way...I am patient. (and I hope you are too...sorry, but this is a long one!)

So I get annoyed when my patience is tested by co-workers...no, ONE co-worker in particular whom I work with on a daily basis. His passive aggressive nature is quite annoying and hard to be patient with in the first place...but when I am greeted with lovely notes like the one I got today...

...it's at this point that my patience leaves me all together.

Now...allow me to give you a little background. At work, one of my main jobs is typing specifications. If you aren't at all aware of how specifications work...they are basically a bunch of words, bullet points and phrases used to tell Contractors and Engineers when, where, how and why they are to do what they need to do in regards to any construction situation. We have specifications at my job because we are an Architecture office and it is important for the Contractors and Engineers to know when, where, how and why we want certain things done. It is also a big CYA (Cover Your Arse) factor as well. You see if things go wrong at a site, we have to know it wasn't because we left something unsaid or a job unexplained. That's the basic reasoning in WHY we have specs. We have specs for EVERY single job we do. From adding new windows to a school to a complete new construction of an office building.

I type the specs. All of them. Now granted, I am not typing them all from scratch. Luckily there is a system that is used where we take basically pre-designed specs and we re-write aspects of the specs to suit each job type. The needs of the job, the construction specifics, etc.

So I receive piles of papers printed out with RED INK all over them from said annoying co-worker. With notes like, change this, add this space here, write this, etc etc etc. So that's what I have to do. Some of the jobs come with deadlines and some not so much. Some jobs take 20 minutes to complete, while others could take me the entire day.

The gentlemen that is the Spec Writer is well...supremely anal. God bless him, he is a nice enough man...but there are many things about his personality and the way he works that completely irks the living daylights out of me. For example...in HIS mind there is always a deadline. So he brings me the papers and at any given time and will drape them over the edge of the counter, covering my computer screen. (usually while I am in the middle of typing another project for another co-worker) So I then am usually patient enough to stop what I am doing (although showing signs of a little annoyance) listen to the deadline and what he needs (he feels it's necessary to go over all the red markings on each paper) and then I need to let him know that I heard him and let him have an idea of when he will be getting the project back. Other times, for example in the mornings...I will come in with papers all over my desk from him. Different projects to work on. Instead of placing them in my INBOX like he has been asked to do. But I usually grin and bear it and get over it.

Now, while I understand that specifications are technically a legal document (for CYA purposes), it still bugs me that every single SPACE, MARGIN, PERIOD and such must be JUST so...it doesn't make it any LESS annoying when he proceeds to POINT out again and again...that I must have NOT been paying attention, or I am too easily distracted and I can't get the work done right the first time. He has even gone so far as to ask my other co-workers to cover the phones for me so I won't have any distractions. I am the FREAKING receptionist...OF COURSE I am going to have distractions. Why in the world don't you, as the SPEC WRITER actually WRITE the specs yourself?? He literally....prints the pages from the pre-designed specs, and puts red-marked written corrections all over it then give is to me. I make the corrections, print a new copy only for him to put MORE corrections on the spec and give it back to me to correct and print again.

I have an idea...skip the stinkin' middle man and just MAKE the corrections on the computer yourself, since I am apparently not doing it how YOU would do it!!!!!!

Well today was the straw that broke the stinkin' camels back. My patience has run out. You see, we have been working on a project, that I have known from the beginning needs to be complete by THIS Friday. I have been steadily working on each section of the project and returning it to him for his checking. (Like I just mentioned he brings me corrections, I make them. He takes them back and then almost always brings me more corrections. oh yeah...we got through ALOT of paper.)

Meanwhile I have been having major problems with the relationship between my computer and my printer. Sometimes it will add spaces where spaces don't belong. It will add other formatting marks where they aren't seen in the print preview. I can't get rid of them...and our IT guy has seriously been trying to fix the problem now for over a week. The said anal co-worker has been made aware of this MORE than once. I have said to him, "Anal Co-worker, my printer is acting up again. I realize it may seem like there are some extra spaces or formatting marks on this draft, but when all the corrections are made and the spec is finalized it will be sent to the printer for printing and binding so they will not show up on the final copy. So please disregard them, as they are not my mistake."

You would think at this point...any comments about extra marks or spaces would be left unsaid because after all, these are just DRAFTS and there is NOTHING I can do to fix the problem. So just OVER look them, and move on to giving me any other un-related corrections. But no.....I get notes like this...

Wanna know what he is talking about? Extra spaces. Yep...the very extra spaces that he has been TOLD just appear on the printed document. He says (in case you can't read the note) "If you looked at the printed section this would not happen!"

I CAN'T FIX IT!!!!! What in the WORLD made you think that this note was appropriate!!!!!

He is basically saying to me..."Hey moron, if you would pay attention to how the document printed out, you would see all the extra spaces that I have circled and asked you to correct and you would have fixed them before you gave me the corrected copy. Idiot."

I am no idiot...you are.

And my patience is gone. It packed up it's bags and left town...like took a jet plane to anywhere but here. Gone.

I am seriously biting my tongue now...if I get a visit from anal co-worker, 'checking up on the status of the project'...I may go postal.