The work dilemma...

Ok, so I am warning you that this post may end up being very long and very boring. I will try to keep it entertaining but I can't promise anything and no guarantee's will be made that it will be entertaining. I just need to talk about something work-related and, well, this is my blog and that's what it is for, right? Who said anything about entertaining other people, this is really just a venue for me to vent/ponder when I need to, right?

First, the Characters:
The Boss - she owns the business and is currently on maternity leave (kind of, she checks in once a week).

Mr. Thinks-He's-In-Charge: The guy who was put in charge. I am not fond of him. I never have been, probably never will be. But the majority of the remainder of the staff LOVE him. I don't get it, he just wastes my time, doesn't help we with anything and I have a secret sneaking suspicion he despises me for being a girl who his 25 years his junior and more capable of doing his job than he is (at least in my opinion! HMMMFFF).

Mr. S&M (Sales and Marketing...get your minds OUT of the gutter, this is about work!): he takes care of sales and marketing. Very OCD but otherwise a good guy. Recently switched jobs (within the company) into this position from a very different position.

Me: Need I explain

Cowboy Wrangler: account manager for our satellite location. Up until we actually got a real office for our satellite location, she worked out of her house and had no other employee's at that location.

Crazy Woman: A recent addition. Bitter that she didn't start the satellite location on her own (I don't think she could have) and will not do any of the following: return phone calls, answer phones calls, respond to emails, do ANYTHING the way we would like it done and, well do anything else that would be helpful and/or nice. She is kind of like the 'franchise owner' for the satellite location. She also has lost us some clients, instead of bringing more in (as promised because they were contacts from her prior job).

Crazy Mama: Crazy Woman's mother. THIS WOMAN IS FUCKING INSANE AND IS POSSIBLY THE STUPIDEST AND MOST ANNOYING PERSON I KNOW. She works for us only as a condition of Crazy Woman(which at first was a bargaining chip because we wanted her...I honestly think both Crazy Women and Crazy Mama are a fucking waste of space on this earth). Her normal response to anything that anyone says to her is: "Crazy Woman is my boss, I only do what my boss tells me to do."

The Background
About a year ago, we opened a satellite location. All that really meant is that we hired Cowboy Wrangler to keep our clients in this town happy and help out with some other aspects of our work. Our clients were VERY happy with her and she had been a great addition to our company.

About 5 months ago, Crazy Woman left her job and decided to open an Bug Screening business (that's what we do...I'm being sarcastic if you can't tell but would like to maintain a little bit of mystery, unless you've been paying attention, in which case you already probably know what type of business I work for and if you are really smart, who). Anywho, she worked for someone else who did Bug Screening prior to this and wanted to open her own business. Since we are in the same business and Crazy Woman and The Boss are friends, they decided to go in on it together. The deal was that we pay the startup costs and employee Crazy Mama for 24 hours a week and Crazy Woman runs the business, working for us, but doesn't make anything until the business starts making money. BUT WORKS FOR US. AND LETS COWBOY WRANGLER USE THE SPACE (SINCE WE ALL WORK FOR THE SAME BUSINESS) AND THAT CRAZY MAMA HELPS DO CERTAIN TASKS TO HELP OUT COWBOY WRANGLER WHEN NEEDED, SINCE OTHERWISE SHE SITS THERE AND ANNOYS THE FUCK OUT OF ME, DOING EVERYTHING WRONG SO I HAVE TO FIX IT AND THEN TELLS ME 'WHATEVER, CRAZY WOMAN IS MY BOSS SO I'M GOING TO DO WHAT SHE TOLD ME TO DO.' AND GOES BACK TO PLAYING HER COMPUTER GAMES.

My boss went on maternity leave and (obviously) put Mr. Thinks-He's-In-Charge in charge. He meets with both Me and Mr. S&M and tells us both that he is considering putting one of us in charge of the satellite location. He put Mr. S&M in charge of the satellite office and staff because he has no idea what I do or how I do it and is afraid of me. But didn't actually tell me he made that decision so for weeks I wonder what the fuck is going on. Then I figure it out on my own. Mr. S&M is a good guy but generally ignores the going on's of the satellite location and only deals with the staff when absolutely necessary. In reality, because of my position, I deal with them the most (fixing their fucking mistakes because they have no idea what they are doing and won't actually listen to anything I say).

Also I should probably mention that Cowboy Wrangler and Crazy Women used to be very good friends. Until Crazy Woman re-married her abusive piece of shit ex-husband and lied (or omitted to tell Cowboy Wrangler about it because Crazy Woman knew what Cowboy Wrangler thought of her piece of shit abusive ex-husband). This is why Crazy Woman quit her job, she had her husbands money. Crazy Woman and Cowboy Wrangler are no longer friends. They hate each other and in my opinion do anything they can to make each other miserable. Crazy Mama is obviously on Crazy Woman's side. They do not play nicely. I think it is more of The Crazy's fault than Cowboy Wrangler but that's just my opinion.

The Ongoing Saga
Things have gotten bad. Clients are complaining, the office isn't being maintained and our competition is stealing away are clientele because they are starting to think we are hacks. Crazy Mama does everything...but doesn't actually know how to do anything. Crazy Woman is rarely in the office and does not answer her phone calls or respond to her emails from anyone except The Boss and Mr. Thinks-He's-In-Charge. This is not productive, to say the least. And the word on the street is that Crazy Woman and her peice of shit abusive ex-current-husband are moving to Hickville, USA. But she has made no mention of this to us. Why would she, or when could she, she never calls us!

I have spent about 10 hours over the past 3 days discussing this problem with (a) Cowboy Wrangler and then subsequent conversations with Mr. Thinks-He's-In-Charge, Mr. S&M and The Boss. All of them have done nothing. Nothing that has not been initiated by me. The most frustrating thing is that Mr. S&M, who is supposed to be managing the office and staff knows of the problems (knew before I talked to him about them) and (obviously) does nothing.

Over the past few months, there have been a few 'confrontations' with the staff of the satellite location (excluding Cowboy Wrangler). I have initiated and completed all of those confrontations. Mr. Thinks-He's-In-Charge (THIC) and Mr. S&M have just sat back and let me take the attitude and serious bitchiness (and subsequent action of being ignored but Crazy Woman and Crazy Mama). Have I mentioned that it is not my responsibility?

One of the major problems is that Mr. THIC will not actually make any serious decisions because he is afraid The Boss is going to get pissed if he does something she doesn't agree with. I should make it clear that The Boss has done nothing but make it clear to me that since day one, any decision I made, she would back up. If it was a mistake then just fix it. It happens, deal with it. But she would support any decision I wanted to make. I haven't the faintest idea how Mr. THIC can think he is doing his job (that HE IS IN CHARGE of everything) but yet HE'S AFRAID TO MAKE DECISIONS BECAUSE THE BOSS MIGHT GET MAD. Doesn't seem like the right person to be in charge to me, does it?

So here we are. Mr. THIC won't make a decision because he doesn't want to get in trouble with The Boss. The Boss doesn't want to get involved because she is (a) trying to let Mr. THIC do his job (what a concept!) and (b) she is friends with Crazy Woman and, I think, is hesitant to take and dramatic action. Mr. S&M is aware of and actively ignoring the situation at our satellite location. Cowboy Wrangler is ready to quit because (a) she feels no-one cares that things are going to shit (except me, because I am the only one who has actually taken any time to deal with the situation, talk to her about what is going on, to tell her that she has been a great asset to the company and to pass on client compliments to her, because it's true) and (b) she can't work with Crazy Woman and Crazy Mama because they are horrid...they make her feel like shit, talk shit about her to our clients behind her back, aren't helpful to her (like they are supposed to be) and don't respond/answer phone calls or emails.

Here I am, stuck in the middle of all this while trying to wrap up end of the year stuff, hire someone and, you know, do my job! My biggest problem with the whole situation is that, even though Mr. THIC and Mr. S&M are aware of the situation, both of them responded the same way to me when I confronted them about "What are you going to do about it?" Am I that far off base when I think to myself, WHAT THE FUCK, it's not my job. I have no idea what to do. It's not my responsibility. No one has asked for my help and no-one could pay me enough money to deal with them. Oh wait, I'm doing it for nothing extra right now! But I hate to see what is happening happen. The Boss has spent a lot of time and money building this company up, making sure we have a great name and great reputation and now it's all going to shit because of a few crazy bitches who won't work with us. It's not my job to care but I do. I could easily sit back, say I've tried, and watch Cowboy Wrangler quit (this would be a shame because she really is a great employee) and watch this company's name go to shit with clients who we have been trying to get an 'in' with for years. I could do all this because really, I'm not getting paid THAT much. I could deal with my little world and let that part of it collapse because no-one else is dealing with it.

OR I could deal with it, even though it's not my job and even though I am getting paid no where near enough to deal with the bullshit I would have to deal with from The Crazy's. I could gather everyone (The Boss, Mr. S&M, Mr. THIC) and tell them that we need to make a decision about what to do and do it (whether it's cut things loose or get things in fucking shape) and then demand that I wanted to be the one to do it. I could show the initiative and stage a hostile takeover of managing the satellite location and hope that (a) it would pay off and I would get a raise and that (b) being hated by everyone in my office for being the raging powerful bitch (that most of them already think I am and hate me for) wouldn't cause them all to hate me so much that I have to find a new job.

Side Note: I CANNOT for the life of me spell the word "satellite" correctly.

So, there you go. Maybe my misery was slightly entertaining for you. Maybe no. If you've read this far I'm honestly surprised. But I am so frustrated because I have no idea what to do about the situation. I honestly don't blame my boss for anything because she is trying to let the person she choose to be in charge and manage her business do his job, she is also trying to adjust to being a first time mom with a 2 month old. She is also trying to avoid losing a friend. I think the major problem lies in Mr. THIC because he's let the whole situation get this far. Mr. S&M isn't handling the situation that well, but he's also relatively new to this part of the industry (managing, customer relations, etc.) and so part of his problem is inexperience and bad leadership (Mr. THIC). So, that's it. I'm not really sure if there is anything else. Except I don't know what to do...