MY OFFICE IS A SOAP OPERA

My office is the set for one soap opera that would catch the interest of soap opera addicts. Set in the newest and posh business districts in Metro Manila, my office is the melting pot for all walks of employees. Because of the higher pay that is given by the company, the good, the bad and oh yes the ugly converge.

The good aim to do good and maintain their distance from all the brouhaha going on, but with a company of 500 employees, they end up getting dragged into the drama. Take for example this Manager - I do not know why she has earned the ire of one particular employee, actually it was so petty I have already have forgotten what it was. Anyway, the employee would call her names or bitch about her within her earshot. She also trashes her reputation at a social networking website and keeps at it until now. I cannot imagine where she is getting this energy to hate a person with this much venom.

The same manager also had a run in with another employee, a beautiful transvestite who is actually not bad at all work wise because he does his job -  comes to work early, does not go absent and gets commendations from customers. This manager wanted the employee to work on his rest day which I personally do not think is fair and I don't even think it is legal, but she asked him anyway giving the reason that the office was "understaffed". Apparently as the story goes, the employee became so enraged that he stormed out of the office complained straight to the  Human Resources Department. And the Manager of course gets mad too because she feels bypassed and disregarded. Damage Control people! This could have been avoided had they had the good sense to talk things over -  between them. Good thing they patched things up with matching hugs. 

Going back to the tranny employee -  this employee gets into everybody's business. Sometimes, he does want to help out, but more often than not, he just wants to be "in on the action". One time, he meddled in a fight (according to him, he interceded to let them know that they should talk about it) between two employees who were fighting over what another (third person) employee said about the other. In the end, he was the one who got into a fight, charging the other employee (with flaring nostrils, I might add and that is in the literal sense) and calling the other employee uncouth. Through out his tirades this employee was quietly doing her job and just replied with one statement: "Look who's talking". Tranny stomped away and I felt like if he had the chance, he would have waited for her at the building entrance and beat her up in a pulp. 

Another colorful character in this office has a "Me-against-the-world"complex and so full of angst that you feel yourself dragged into her negativity. She gets slighted over the most innocent and common remarks with matching name-calling and backbiting and saying stuff about the person with in an earshot. But it does not stop there. Because we are blessed with all this wonderful technology, it enables her to go on tirades about the people on her social networking account, dragging her minions to do the same. She had run-ins with everybody from an employee, to a supervisor and a Manager. I bet if she is within the circle of the site director, she would manage to find something she could complain about the director.

Another character that personally annoys me is an employee that has chosen the wrong shade of blue for his contact lenses and has an obnoxious personality. A Mr-know-it-all, he also get's into other people's business. But on the other hand, I do not think he realizes that he is that annoying because whatever he does for you is because his intentions are good. There is just something - which I cannot put my finger on - about him that is so annoying. One way to describe it is me being a dog and I am disturbed by his scent but I am unable to tell what it is. He does paint a colorful picture about his experiences, like how he managed his own business and how he was successful at it at an early age. I am just so itching to ask him, "so why are you here then?". He has a big problem with his absences with an unbelievable number of sickness that he had -  from laryngitis to toothaches to kidney problems. But other than that, he is a good guy so I make sure to take his friendship with a grain of salt.

The drama is unending. Fights resulting from petty issues like what happened to one employee who was prohibited by the other to sell a kind of pastry because she was selling it first. It's like Coca-cola telling Pepsi that it can't sell soda at this place because he was there first. Struggles with rules such as bringing food and drinks on the floor has also been a cause of employee upheaval. They stopped allowing us to bring food and drinks because of the sheer disregard for cleanliness. I mean come on! You eat something out of a bag with a spoon, make sure you dispose of your bag and spoon! And the reason some employees do not do this is do to the fact that there are no trash bins around?? I personally find that a lame excuse. That just shows how some people in my office are lazy and just plain litterbugs.

I could go on and on and on and on. But the everyday situations like these are what some of us look forward to. Because the management has fallen short of our expectations, some continue on because of the higher pay than most that they offer, some are still there because of the people and camaraderie, some because the job is really easy and some are like the paparazzi, closely watching people to see who makes the next stupid move. Some had been saying that they were leaving two or three months running but are still there, for whatever reason they may have.

My office is a soap opera, running 24 hours, now in it's second season. I am wondering what the season ender would be. Like many soap opera's it's could be a tear-jerker... or as hilarious as the day to day situations are, it may just end up in one big laugh.