Blitz!

Denise really didn’t like her supervisor, almost hated her. The reasons were a combination of differences in personality, lack of respect due to the way she handled certain situations, and realizing that in other situations, her supervisor was incompetent. It was a bad mix, and one she had to deal with because no matter how many times she complained to her superiors, in a professional manner, nothing changed.

           She decided to start a journal, more of a log, of all the comments and happenings between her and her supervisor. She would use it for herself, so she had a record, and if there was ever an issue, she’d have the information to better prove that there were problems with how her supervisor dealt with her. She isn’t using it in a malicious way; in fact, she doesn’t intend for anyone to ever see it.

           She doesn’t want to use an actual journal; that would seem too immature and juvenile. Plus, if someone was looking for something in her desk, they might find it and read it. Then all her feelings and thoughts would be out, which wouldn’t make her look good, even if the negative comments were about her supervisor.

           She chose to keep the file on her computer, protected of course. People aren’t on her computer, but if someone needs to borrow it for something, they won’t be able to access this file. She named it something boring as well so if someone saw it they wouldn’t be tempted by it or think it was anything out of the ordinary.

           She only kept a log of interaction between her and her supervisor, no one else. She also didn’t use her name, just in case. If someone ever did see this file, she wanted to be as protected as possible.

           Over the next few weeks and months the journal became pretty full. At least once a week, sometimes more often, she would note a slight the supervisor made, or something she’d done that wasn’t necessary. Denise was surprised by how many things her supervisor did; she hadn’t been aware of how often it was until she began keeping a log of it. She would have a lot of ammo if she ever did need to use it.

           Denise came into a situation where she began working from home. She didn’t mind it because she liked being home and she was able to spend more time with her dog, Blitz, named because he loved to run around the house like a crazy dog, looking like a blitz as he did so. He would rest under her desk as she worked, unless he wanted to go out or play; then he would run around and be completely distracting. Her husband worked away from home so it was just her and Blitz during the day.

           One of Blitz’ favorite things to do, especially when he was bored and wanted attention, was to jump up so his front paws were on her lap. She didn’t mind, actually thought it was cute. Sometimes he would sit in her lap and watch, sniffing the keyboard, mouse, and monitor as she worked. It was distracting, but she was still able to work and he didn’t disrupt anything she was doing.

           Occasionally he would press against the keyboard and type something, but she could easily delete it and it didn’t cause any problems. She was always careful that he wasn’t close if she was working on something really important, or sensitive. She didn’t want to get in trouble because her dog pushed against something he shouldn’t.

           Her supervisor still sent her emails and other communications, and somehow even in those she found things to log; things that sounded inappropriate or condescending. She was beginning to feel like a tattletale, even if she wasn’t sharing the log with anyone. It was partially she realized, a place to keep track of actual slights and happenings, and partially a place to keep track of snarky comments, just to see for herself how often they occurred and what kinds of things she said. On average, the snarky comments were at least a couple of times a week, while the actual slights were about once a week or so. It was like she couldn’t go more than a few days without saying something mean.

           Blitz was her constant companion, bouncing around sometimes, laying at her feet in rest sometimes, and jumping onto her lap to better see what she was doing, what she was working on. She still found it amusing when he typed on the keyboard and she had to erase what he had typed, or when he nosed the mouse. She knew it wasn’t the most professional way to work, even if it was from home, but it provided both of them with entertainment so she didn’t see the harm in it.

           She usually worked on the log of her supervisor in the later afternoon, if she worked on it at all.

           She had both her regular work email and files open, and was adding to the file on her supervisor at the same time. The supervisor had just sent her an email, and as usual, had said something inappropriate. She was about to save the file on her supervisor when Blitz jumped into her lap, startling her. She hadn’t even realized he was in the room at the moment. He covered her face in doggy kisses, his tail sweeping the keyboard. She laughed and he settled in her lap, his little face sniffing around and trying to see what she was doing.

           She went to hit save again but Blitz got in the way, his head hitting one of the keys on the keyboard. Her file disappeared and she just stared at her computer for a second, realizing what had happened. The file on her supervisor had disappeared because Blitz had included it in the email she was sending and it had also sent. She couldn’t believe she had let that happen. What was going to happen to her relationship with her supervisor? What was going to happen to her job?