Anyone familiar with the sorrority/fraternity college experience is probably also familiar with the hazing "pledges" or future new members must endure in order to join. Hence the reason that despite numerous generations of sorrority/fraternity members in my family including my mother who's an AKA, I've never pledged (but more because I'm too likely to whup some butt if push upon the wrong way).
So with 2 weeks to go on my job before I'm no longer on probation and officially a "permanent" employeee, the interview killer is really starting to step up her "hazing" game. To the tune of harassaing me EVERY SINGLE DAY about the most mundane of things (you left the cap off your pen on your lab bench and it's leaking ink, kinda 'ish). Now it wouldn't be so bad if I had an office and she came to me with this nonsense, but she frequently does it with an "audience" of my fellow collegues, 5 of whom sit within a few feet of me (and are essentially "in" my conversations too). So because I easily recognized what she was doing, I'd chosen to ignore her and do my best to keep it moving until one day she got especially nasty with me and when she walked off, a couple of the folks who sit near me made comments about it. Now I've obviously gotten used to working alongside idiots these 4 or so years since I left the NIH, so I'd developed a somewhat efficient method of dealing with them by saying little or simply ignoring them. But this b*tch humuliated me in front of our collegues and that wasn't gonna work! And all over the missspelling of one person's name in a database?
So after many weeks of this and with other strange things happening with my experiments, I finally decided to casually mention it to my supv earlier in the week and when I walked in his office to tell him I had something we needed to discuss, he immediately said "Please don't tell me you're quitting because you're doing such a GREAT job"! Not only that, his boss continues to extol the good job I'm doing which in one way is great, but I also think is partially at the source of the grief the interview killer (ICK for short)is constantly giving me. Later in the week, ICK esculated her "game", and seeing that my patience was starting to run REAL thin, I decided to make a more formal complaint with my Supv (so much for flying under the radar until my probation is up). Now normally I'd be pretty comfortable with finally acknowledging what my Supv and others are clearly aware of at this point in my tenure with this company. But he also mentioned the fact that it doesn't help either of us for one of us to constantly complain about the other. And since this was only my second time even mentioning anything to him about her, I can only assume she's had a LOT more negative crap to say about me than I was originally told by him. However, there's not a damn thing I can do about what SHE says/does and who she says it to (and apparently she's gone to HIS boss too, the guy who's always complimenting my work). They are either going to believe it and let me go like the last lady she black balled out the door, or keep me around and finally nip this cow in the bud! And at this point, Kay sa ra, sa ra!!!! Anyhoo, according to my collegues, this woman played a significant role in why the woman I replaced didn't make it to her 90 days and was fired, a concern I shared with my Supv on Friday (I'd also worked with a man she worked with previously at this company and who also feels she's the reason he was fired). So basically, Ick has demonstrated at least 2 times her ability to get rid of people she doesn't like and from the moment we met at my interview, I'm one clearly one of those people.
And this brings me to the caption of this post, I'm close to being permanent and being "challenged" all the way to the finish line, in a hazing/pledging kinda way! Regretfully, I decided NOT to apply to the job at my old gig, so quiting this gig isn't even a consideration. Neither is loosing my cool, so I'll simply have to come up with ways to get my job done while circumventing Ick. All that said, circumventing a person who loudly approaches you with stupidity while you're sitting in your cubicle will likely prove FAR more challenging and it will be real interesting to see if I can do that with out giving her the tongue lashing she so rightfully deserves!
Moving on, I've pretty much spent EVERY night since I got my scores back reading information about the various med schools I'm considering applying to. And this has been a LOT of fun because my research on schools also includes looking at real estate in the local area, high schools, cost of living and other things. Of course, all this "research" means that Cali is probably out! Well maybe, the cost of living on one hand seems similar to my current situation in Metro DC but on the other hand, when I look at how many people live within one square mile, it seems PACKED with people! So I told my daugther who has been begging me for years to visit Cali, that we're going take our spring 2012 break in southern cali! While there, I'll also talk to a few med schools and look at areas to live just in case. I also forget that I was recently asked to interview by a company in northern cali but declined, so the job market in Big Pharma is pretty darn good!
You know when I think about all the hell I've dealt with these past few years on the job, perhaps a serious change in environment should at the very least be seriously considered! The worst thing that could happen is that we move back to the east coast after a 1 or 2 year stint and isn't living life with ALL it's twists and turns, what REAL living is all about???
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