thanks for you input, butterfly! Today, I tried this assertiveness thing. It's not something I do often and was raised to believe I really didn't have the right to stand up for my needs. I'm often easy to convince that I am wrong and seeing things incorrectly. Today I stood up for myself. For the past 20 years I have worked with someone I shall call "the slug". He's the laziest, most unmotivated person I have ever worked with. His major undertakings in the workplace are internet surfing and trying to get into the pants of any female co-worker/student who is under 25. He's also a bit of a bully and will fight back against any supervisor who even hints at his ineptitude. So, what happens it that they placate and pander to him which sometimes can become just darn irritating! This week a co-worker went on vacation and her duties needed to be covered. I was assigned 2.5 extra hours of duties and the slug got 15 minutes. So yesterday I went to the slug and asked if this was his understanding of the assignments...and it was. I wanted to give him the opportunity to step up and take something off my plate which, of course, he didn't. I told him I would address this with the supervisor. So today, before our staff meeting the supervisor, myself and the slug were in the board room together before others arrived. I thought this would be a good time as it would be private and no one would lose face. I stated my concern and what changes I wanted to see in the assignments. The slug started rolling his eyes and said "Oh sure, give me more work" and the supervisor began lecturing me on how sometimes everyone has to do more than someone else blah blah blah. So once more I repeated what I wanted as an outcome. Finally, she agreed and the slug got an extra hour of my workload. He reponded with "just wait till I get an extra half hour added on, I'll be sure to bring it up" I responded "that's fine" and then thanked them both for their co-operation. I have to remember that when you challenge the status quo there will be a reaction. It was ridiculous, they were trying to tell me I was being petty, unreasonable and selfish. In my mind, this was so blatant even I couldn't be convinced I was wrong lol! So the slug sulked for the rest of the day and I carried on. That's my day so far!
