In writing this post, I have to confess a guilty pleasure. I might be addicted to watching "Celebrity Apprentice" with Donald Trump. (When I admitted this to a group of colleagues, the reaction was a solid groan, so I'm a bit sensitive.)
The reason "Celebrity Apprentice" makes good fodder for We Can Relate can be explained in two words: Melissa Rivers. She, with the help of mom Joan, has made the show's "workplace" -- and I use that term loosely -- a veritable junior high school cafeteria. (Melissa has even described it that way, though she blamed the other players, of course.)
Melissa always was miserable when she was on the job because she thought everyone was out to get her -- she complained they were talking about her behind her back, excluding her from projects, disregarding her ideas. So everyone else was miserable when she was around.
Haven't you worked with someone like that before -- a colleague who made your job more work than it had to be?
It made me think of N., an amazing reporter and passionate writer who spent most of the time at the office complaining about our boss and, well, everyone she came in contact with. They all interfered with her ability to create the best stories she could -- edited too much, asked too many questions, demanded she make deadline, and on and on.
Truth was, N. was the one creating all the drama. But you couldn't tell her that. And you couldn't spend too much time entertaining her tales of woe, because then you couldn't get your own job done.
So you had to cut her off as diplomatically as possible, or avoid getting tangled in her grip of drama -- again, as diplomatically as possible.
But that would feed her claims of being persecuted, and you'd get caught up in a round of questioning about whether you were mad at her and what she had done to make you treat her so coldly.
N. still works at the same place, but the cast of characters has changed dramatically. So has her behavior and her attitude, from what I can gather. She's happy and productive.
Good thing her boss wasn't Donald Trump. He showed Melissa Rivers the door for such behavior.
Monday, May 04, 2009
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4 comments:
I often look at people and think, "This person sees the world differently than I do." Sometimes they get in the way, and sometimes they're amusing. Most of the time I'd rather watch them from a distance, like on TV, as you do Melissa.
Hi Pot, meet Kettle. Are you not passing the drama along by writing about N. "behind N's back"? Yes, N does seem immature, however so do you for going on about N and what N does and how N does it.
this blog sucks
Um, you forgot to mention that the other two were actually working together (effectively leaving Melissa out) Therefore, if they lost, Melissa would be the one who did the least and would be kicked off.
So she may have been dramatic, but she wasn't paranoid.
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