~~AS PROMISED, THE CONCLUSION TO THE POST FROM A FEW DAYS AGO...~~

While I feel really bad for posting this, or even saying anything at all....I'm gonna lose my frickin' mind if I don't get to vent about it!! Here's the scoop....

Some of you may or may not know Peanutt and I work together and had to move from one office to another about 3 months ago. The office that we moved to, is one that I actually worked at for about 8 years. In that time, I of course made many friends and hung out with quite a few people that still work there today.

One of those people was "Spaz", or S for short. While, I knew her pretty well; we often had lunch together and chatted whenever we could find the time during work. I thought of her as a very hard worker and just a great person all around. When we were told that we were moving back, I couldn't have been happier that we would be sharing an area with S. I was grateful that it was someone that I had actually gotten along so well with in the past. (Not to say that I had enemies or anything there, but there is one particular person who was one of the biggest factors in my decision to leave that clinic in the first place, I feared being matched up in an area with her.)

Anyhow, when we moved in everything seemed great. She was willing to work with us and seemed very laid back about sharing her space and even giving up some of her space, just to accomodate us. I had no problems, at all!

I can't really determine where the problems began, but I am now to the point where I think I'm about to go nuts! Here are the things that Peanutt and I encounter on a daily basis....

1) She calls to confirm her appointments EVERY SINGLE DAY, for a few days in the future. While that would seem as though it's no big deal to all of you, it makes us wanna rip our hair out and our ears bleed, from all the screaming that she does into the damn phone! When S, Peanutt and I are all on the phone at the same time, during said confirming (i.e. making the patient's ears bleed too), I almost have an anxiety attack, because it gets so loud you can't hear who you are talking to, you have to try and yell over her so that they can hear you on the other end, and if more patients are standing at the desk at the time, it's all over for me. Instant anxiety and bad mood!!!!

2) When a patient comes to check in at the front desk, they reach me first. She takes full advantage of that and will pretend to be busy, even when she knows that they are seeing her doc and not ours. Now don't get me wrong here, I'm all about pitching in and helping out when she needs it, but I think we do about 80% of her work, on any given day. This also applies to the people when they are checking out, and have to make return appointments, or need reminders put into the computer, or even when the phone is ringing! (Her phone btw!)

As I said before, I'm all about pitching in...especially when the favor is returned, but IT NEVER IS!! I can honestly say, that Peanutt and I probably check in & out at least half of all her patient's every single day, while she checks in & out probably 3-4 of ours. It's like we are literally running circles around her when things get busy!

3) She will get right in your face to talk to you, (I'm talking close encounters of the wierd kind here). I'm sorry, but I really don't like random people getting in my personal space like that. And it truly trips me out, when people ignore body language like they do, (totally turning away from them, backing up, things like that). Do they not percieve that as a sign???? Now if I know someone very well, like my kids or Brian, even Peanutt, that's fine. But not S...I want so bad to just say to her, "back off Jack, we really aren't THAT close!" "Give me my fucking space, cuz I can truly still hear you from a few feet away...YOU YELL EVERYTHING, how could I not hear??"

4) Recently, she was told by the doc that she works with, that she was being way too loud. She was appalled and couldn't believe that he would say something like that! Oh my gosh, Peanutt and I wanted to die laughing as she was ranting and raving about it ALL FRICKIN' DAY LONG! Saying, "there is no way that he can hear me from all the way in the back of the clinic!!!" Uh S, I have some news for you....your big mouth is about to seriously drive me stark raving mad!!! I am to the point where just hearing her voice is about to make me crack. I see me crumbling sometime in the very near future. I JUST CAN'T TAKE IT ANYMORE!

I really do try to walk into work with a halfway decent attitude every single day. Granted, I can't ALWAYS do that...but I do put some effort into it. That effort is all in vain, because the first time that I have to scream over her to talk to a patient stading at my desk (less than 2 feet away), I'm done. Bad mood! Bad bad mood!!! That mood does not go away until I either go to lunch or she leaves for the day, (which she rarely ever leaves before me).

If anyone has any suggestions to help us cope, we would really appreciate it. And no, it isn't just me being tempramental either, Peanutt feels the same way! We are losing our marbles here. What should we do???? Help!!!!