What Made you Smile/What Ticked you off Today?

[AznKhmerBoi]

@Xeogred, every job out there are stressful and tends to have a few idiots here and there. Id totally agree with you that if id would be piss off too if im always getting shit and my solution would be to just awknowledge her and let her bark.

As for the highschool drama bs just dont let it get to you. If you dont talk to them they wont talk to you, they might talk about you, but who cares if their not in your circle of work friends. Your there to make your money so just make your money and leave all that drama there at work.

[BoringSupreez]

I hear ya on the high school drama nonsense, that shit's weak. I work with a bunch of women who are constantly giggling, gossiping, sending each other texts on their iPhones, talking about people behind their backs, etc... Just the other day we were in a meeting and a bunch of these women started laughing (or stifling laughter, I guess). I couldn't figure out what the fuck was going on. Turns out they were emailing each other and making comments about the "ridiculous" outfits some of the other people in the room were wearing! I couldn't fucking believe it.

I have to deal with that all the time, and I don't even go to high school. Two of my co-workers are in the same class in school, and a third one's an aid in the same school, so I'm constantly hearing gossip about crap I don't know or care about (partly because they're all female, so they don't even care about the same things I do). The last two weeks I've been hearing nothing but prom hype.

There's a bright side to this though: my boss is getting fed up too. He wants more work and less talk.

[BoneSnapDeez]

Wait, two students and a school aide are all gossiping among themselves? Sounds pretty unprofessional. I've worked in schools where staff and students fraternize a bit too much and it always leads to disaster.

[ksloth]

Whenever I come home and complain about work (which is frequently) my wife says, "You don't get paid enough to worry about this shit." I actually repeat that mantra to myself when I'm having a rough day. And you know what, it works. I know I don't get paid enough to get so stressed out and I know that I have other options: I could (and eventually will) find a new job, get another degree (which I'm doing now), etc. I'm not doomed to work with shitheads for all eternity.

These are good words. My wife reminds me the same things, and I too repeat that mantra. It really does work.

Perception = 90% of reality. If I can change my perception, my day gets a lot easier.

[elmagicochrisg]

Perception = 90% of reality. If I can change my perception, my day gets a lot easier.

Focus on your breathing...

[AppleQueso]

I work overnight maintenance at Wal-Mart, which is pretty much a fancier term for janitor there. I feel pretty lucky in that my job's usually relatively stress-free. Sure there's a handful of people who make it more difficult than it needs to be sometimes (one manager in particular who occasionally will start getting onto me for bizarre crap), but it's usually pretty fine. People occasionally tell me I should become a normal stocker, but I hear all about the problems they deal with and would much rather stick with worrying about messes on the floor than worry about the mess that is our entire inventory system. Plus stockers aren't even on a higher pay level than us, so there's that too.

The worst thing I really have to deal with is that being maintenance, we're pretty much bottom-rung priority when it comes to management. This makes it very hard sometimes to get supplies ordered, vacations approved, etc.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Xoegard, I'm sorry to hear man. If the economy was better, and jobs easier to find, I would suggest that you adopt a "Fuck off/ I don't give a Fuck" attitude about that type of stuff. I'm not popular where I'm at, but we definitely have an understanding around that I really don't give a shit about a lot of stuff. The only people's opinions I care about are close friends and relatives, and the only other things I care about are my grades and how happy I am. It really helps everything, for me at least. I know you may not be able to do this, but its always a thought.

[Xeogred]

It only bothers you because you allow it.

Yeah, I know this is the absolute truth. I just don't know what happened to turn on this anxiety switch a few years ago, that's only gotten increasingly worse even if technically things are really improving for me and looking good this year.

So it is a battle for me, to just let work completely drop off to the ground when I exit that building and go home. Like all of you are saying, work should be work and that crap should stay there, shouldn't take over my life and stuff. It just really gets to me though. The high school drama issue I have is weird, because I'm pretty sure I'm on everyone's good side and the girls are never really snickering about me or anything I'm guessing, but... seeing that just pisses me off a lot and sometimes you can kind of just tell who some people being picked on probably are. Like this chick leaving my work, she's really cool with me and this other guy, but it's been obvious for months that a lot of the other girls seem possibly jealous of her relationship with us (my guess) or something weird like that, they just really pull the two face card. This old woman I'm bitching about also talks total shit on everyone when they're not around, to anyone, so I can just bet she talks shit whenever I leave too. I shouldn't care, about any of this, but it's just like... holy shit grow up people.

I don't think pharmacy tech work is the ideal career for me, lol. In the last place I worked at in 2009... it was the management and company that caused the stress, very very strict rules and the whole place just felt so robotic, everyone looked so dead and lifeless. I worked there with a few buddies during the year and yeah, one of our friends once joked how we were all completely boring and so drained over the weekends that whole year, the job just took everything out of us. Now this place, the company is a lot friendlier... but then it's just got these dumb assholes and bossy veterans who make it a not so fun experience. You can't win!

Oh and the constant overtime in both jobs... ugh, so sick of it! Maybe that's why I just kind of exploded today, yesterday I had to stay pretty late when it was just one of those days when I was super excited to go home and bam, had to stay late. Kind of just ruined the night and pissed me off a lot. That probably didn't help today, even though for most of the day I was in a really good mood (I bought a new pillow that I think is helping my sleep haha).

I've definitely considered a punching bag or maybe taking up boxing, seriously. heh, that and I seriously wonder if I should look into Buddhism or something. Not for anything spiritual, but it just really sounds like a practice that could make you better understand yourself and your feelings. I have no idea, but it's very interesting to me.

@foxhound1022: yeah, I certainly believe in the possible imbalance issues. I take after my mom and sister whom have crazy issues, bleh lol. I'm just very anti-meds though and it's the last resort for me. I was on xanax for half the year last year pretty much and got off it this January, the withdrawal was completely insane so I never want to experience that again. But maybe there's alternatives... I do have bad neck/shoulder alignment from an accident years ago, maybe something like klonotropin would help and that would get rid of some stress too. No idea...

Anyways yeah... calmed down a lot though, breathing is under control, etc. Feeling good and the next few days should be easy, although Friday I have to open again and will be on that "errors" position for a second time this week... wish me luck lol.

Overall though you're all just right about me though, I do think I have a big problem with uprightness or something. Before that therapy stuff I did, I had a big problem worrying about some of my friends too much... and finally I just had to accept that it's their problems and I can't do shit, AND I have shit to worry about myself. I also loved how I learned that some people really are just "toxic" and you have to distance yourself from them. I do feel like I've been taking baby steps to being more selfish (definitely in a good way here as I need this), but yeah it needs more work probably. Just gotta stop worrying about others and focus on myself.

As always thanks for listening folks, I really appreciate it. I talk too much.

[BoringSupreez]

Wait, two students and a school aide are all gossiping among themselves? Sounds pretty unprofessional. I've worked in schools where staff and students fraternize a bit too much and it always leads to disaster.

The aid is an adult, and she helps with the special-ed students, while the other two are just normal students. I doubt it'll be a problem.

I do know of a situation like you're describing, though. The music teacher at the other local high school mingles with her students very frequently outside of school. It's created a very strong clique, although no disasters that I know of.

[Forlorn Drifter]

Xeogred, rereading your post, I can't help but feel for you that much more. I see it, and it just seems way too much like highschool. That's crap, really. I'm still in this freaking prison they call school, and this shit is way too rampant.