If Fundie Women Had Jobs Would They Be the Workplace Bully?

[GolightlyGrrl]

Most of our favorite fundie ladies avoid the workplace the way Michelle Duggar avoids birth control. However, I have wondered what the workplace would be like if we had people like Zuzu, Kelly, Alte, NON-Thinking Housewife as our co-workers and bosses. And I think we all know the answer to that question. It would not be pretty.

If there is certains traits running on fundie blogs those traits are arrogance, thoughtlessness and a serious lack of empathy. Would these traits be a good thing in the workplace? Well, with the downfall of the American economy due to these traits I'd have to say NO! Yes, having the hard skills are important, but so are soft skills like decency, empathy, kindness and other assorted people-skills. Alte may be able to analyze a pie chart but she has the people skills of an STD. And in my twenty plus years in the workplace I can truly say the best bosses and co-workers I had were both competent and skilled but were also decent human beings.

Sadly, these also seem to be the type of people who get screwed over the most in the workplace. The workplace seems to value the greedy, vindictive, petty and rude, traits we find in our most snarkable fundies. That is why I'm glad these broads are home, and not in the workplace. Whew!

My blogging buddy, Jen, has a great piece on workplace bullying. And she provides a very insightful quote from another article on workplace bullying:

"Targets are not schemers or slimy con artists. They tend to be guileless. The most easily exploited targets are people with personalities founded on a prosocial orientation -- a desire to help, heal, teach, develop, nurture others. Targets are non-confrontive. They do not respond to aggression with aggression. (They are thus morally superior.) But the price paid for apparent submissiveness is that the bully can act with impunity (as long as the employer also does nothing)."

Here is a link to my friend's article:

http://www.jenx67.com/2011/06/female-bu ... -pink.html

[Austin]

Oh, I think a lot of them would be, because a lot of them are bullies in other areas of their lives. They bully other women, they bully their children, they attempt to bully anyone who doesn't think like them.

Many fundies that I know personally have what my momma would have called "a mean streak". I'm not necessarily saying that being a fundie causes a person to be mean or that being mean causes a person to be a fundie, but I have sometimes wondered. If I had to choose one of those two simplistic choices, I'd choose the second.

Mean people always need to identify someone they consider weaker than they are, because they need somewhere to direct their meanness.

[Rosa]

Yes.

In my experience, the first person to go to HR with issues were the fundy-light ladies who needed everyone else to never swear, not have any religious jewelry or materials, never talk about their personal lives unless they were married w/babies...I had a coworker who kept a Bible on her desk, open, all the time; one time I brought in my Tarot cards to do a reading for a coworker on our break & I heard from the manager in about 30 seconds because Ms. Fundie was oppressed! by my Occult Materials! (so then oops she had to take the fucking Bible off her fucking prissy desk after that discussion)

Also with the political stuff - we had a specific "no political talk" during the last election in the office I was in, and while the Dems emailed around stuff (you could *hear* the laughter as Jay Smooth videos went viral through cubeland) it was only Republicans who put stuff up in their cubes against the rules.

[emmiedahl]

I have had bullying coworkers, in at least three instances. It is very, very common in female-dominated workplaces. In two cases, the bullies were supervisors and I basically had to put up with it. One of those was extremely religious, bordering on fundie although Catholic. The third was a coworker. We shared an office and she had several relatives who worked there. Every little dispute (we worked together all day on the same projects, so there was ample opportunity for small differences of opinion) would get taken to 'the jury' of our peers/her in-laws AND our supervisor. The supervisor would scold both of us to get along, so I got quieter and quieter around her and basically did everything her way. She was not fundie at all; in fact, she was adamant that I should get an abortion when I had an unplanned pregnancy because she was worried she'd end up with more of the workload (that is, she'd have to do her fair share).

Back to the topic, I think Zsuzsu is a bully by nature and it would come out in a workplace situation, absolutely. She doesn't really have the guile to pull it off well, but she would make everything very miserable to be sure.

[Witsec6]

This kind of bullying extends way beyond the workplace, too. In the home, it is obvious that many of these fundies are bullies (They beat their kids. That is bullying!), and I am *certain* that in Church, the bloggers we read are the same ladies who would be bullies. All of this backstabbing, tattling, aggressive behaviour is mirrored in my Church, for sure!

FishWithTrish, Mrs. "Uh-Oh" herself, has built her entire ministry on bullying!

[emmiedahl]

YES! I never thought about it, but there is a lot of girl-bullying in church. It's like high school in some congregations. Lots of back-stabbing, rumor-telling, and confrontation--all under the guise of being concerned, caring Christian ladies.

I went to a Lutheran school where the girls were pretty mean... but that's nothing compared to the way the women treated my mom. I still don't really understand why I was there. We are not Lutheran. Or Christian, for that matter.

And I know that there are a lot of Lutherans here who are lovely people, and that this church was not typical--it was basically ran by the John Birch Society, nuff said.

[ladypuglover]

Yes, and I have worked with quite a few of them. They get even nastier when they are in a majority at the work place. Being fundy lite isn't fundy enough for them and Dog forbid if you admit to any other religion than theirs.

[teddybear]

I have worked with fundie women many times over the years, both Protestant and Catholic. In my experience they tended to fall into two groups: The bullies and the door mats. Back in my younger years, when I was still a devout Catholic, I came to work from Ash Wednesday Mass with the ash cross on my forehead. One fundie woman I worked with went off about having the mark of the devil on me and demanding I wipe it off. She went crazy! I was expecting her to start foaming at the mouth she was so worked up. Another fundie woman I worked with, thought our Alzheimer's patients were possessed by the devil and went around muttering exorcisms over them all the time. She was very bossy too and tried to tell everyone how to do their work. There were a couple who were more the door mat type, always subservient, even to those they were supposed to supervise. Not a good thing in a hospital.

[1004srs]

Will edit and resubmit later.

[thoughtful]

If there is certains traits running on fundie blogs those traits are arrogance, thoughtlessness and a serious lack of empathy.

And self-righteousness -- don't forget that! Nothing is ever their fault, they are not only the only ones who are right, they are elect, Godly, blessed! How could anyone deign not to be bullied by them?

[TheJewAmongUs]

I think they would be completely unable to deal with customers/clients/the general public. Like what if someone came into a business wearing a t-shirt they found offensive.

I worked with a born-again guy who was very vocal in his beliefs. He constantly made comments about Jews, so I just never told him I was one, though he eventually found out. He was ranting one day that the Jews were blocking good Christian entertainment like the Passion of the Christ (yea, this was awhile ago.) I complained but the company told me it didn't offend the customers, so just ignore him.

Once we were dealing with a group of Buddhists and he kept coming over to the supervisor with all these complaints about how rude and unruly they were. They were super polite, and it was clearly his issue. He got all worked up ranting about sin and the devil. I found out some of my other co-workers also had issues with the that I'm Jewish. I was also surprised by ones who defended me.

But what really irked me about the guy was that he was constantly late, like 15-45 minutes and would CLOCK IN ON TIME!

I've read my half of the bible, and I think God is alright with the Jews. But I know what it says about stealing, and I think someone needs a little lesson in setting an example of what they preach.

[lilwriter85]

I think several of these people would be workplace bullies because of their beliefs. I know a few workplaces where I worked at in which fundies would be fired if they caused too much trouble or complained certain things. There are a couple fundie bloggers that I think would end up being eaten alive in some workplaces because they either lack a lot of skills.

[lovelyinblack]

My mom used to teach art at "christian" school where the administator was fundie-lite. That b!tch is nastiest person I've ever known! She hated women that were smaller than her, which included mom. Therefore she bullied her relentlessly. That b!tch also targeted my family (My brothers and I attended the same school) my family is not conservative by any means so she used that as an excuse to bully me and my brothers.

[JesusFightClub]

I'm a union rep and as such I take union members' personal cases. I have often thought that fundie women would be terrors in the workplace.

There are certain characteristics which make for a bullying manager:

1. Rigid adherence to the rules and to being "corporate". As an example,suppose you had a miscarriage and turned up to work an hour late with a tearstreaked face. Your manager begins to upbraid you for lateness. You ask to speak privately and explain the circumstances. The manager says "Well, that's all very well, but you work fixed hours and you should have been here at 0830. Also, you're customer facing and should look presentable. I'm considering a written warning for you."

No consideration given to your bravery in turning up for work at all. No "Oh I am so sorry. If you need some quiet time that's fine, just use the meeting room, we don't need it today. To be honest I'm worried about you, would it be better for you to take a couple of days off? Is there someone who could sit with you?"

The fundie mindset is obsession with rules and minutiae to the complete exclusion of empathy. The first sign of a bullying manager.

2. Second sign is expecting 100 percent total and cheerful compliance with the manager's wishes at all times. They can't beat you with a plumbing line until you submit, but they will try anything else. I had the case of a member who was written up for giving her manager "an abusive look" and another case where a manager had tried to forbid her employee from going to the gym on his (legally mandated) lunchbreak due to some perceived slight to her. Another one which was particularly shocking was a disabled employee who had expressed a wish to move to a different area in the organisation. Her manager responded by saying this was "personally offensive"...and cancelling all the employee's leave as a punishment.

Well, in the case of poor Lydia, I think we can see that way of thinking...and poor Justus and Lovelie.

3. A terrible need for control. Fundies feel very scared and sad if they lose control over any area of their lives and their children's lives. Bad and abusive managers want control over every moment of their employees' lives. They micromanage, hover, react in a completely OTT way to any small errors and must know every detail of what the employee is doing at any given moment.

Example: This was me as a very new union rep a few years ago. Now and again I got calls from members needing representation and as my office was open plan I would take their number, go somewhere private and call them back. My manager collared me on my return from one of these calls and said "You're taking personal calls at work. If you're going to continue to do that, I need to know who you are talking to and what you've been talking about."

I said that this was just not possible... the members should have the same level of trust in me they would in anyone else handling the intimate details of their life. Also, these were not "personal calls" they were part of my duties as an elected official of the union. Manager's response "How do I know you're not planning a strike or an illegal action? If you won't tell me that's what I'll assume."

(No, I didn't tell her and I moved out of there as soon as I could.)

But is this not kinda fundie? Think of kids not allowed to close the door in their rooms because they might be masturbating (which is totally normal and healthy) or "sin in the camp" or...so many examples, so little time.

Conclusion? Fundie women bloggers have all the characteristics I see in the worst managers I have to deal with day to day.

[Kelya]

I started recently at a new job and everyone is wicked nice, including this one woman who I'm gonna post about, because she's nice in a confusing and sort of weird way.

Her and another coworker were discussing a person they know outside the office and she said "Well he isn't saved you know." My ears perked up. She mentioned Bible Study to me later, in another story she was telling, but she looked at me very pointedly like I was supposed to ask more about it, sort of? She's very self aggrandizing, she's worked in this field for a very long time but hasn't been promoted because she comes off strangely. I think it might be because she's rather old and out of touch. She needs to tell everyone how to do their job and everyone just says "okay, thank you" and ignores her. The people we work with are bothered by her because she does things "the old way" which is "the right way" and "when I was here all the time" everything was okay and great and wonderful, you know?

If fundie women weren't bullies or doormats, they'd probably be like this lady: confused, out of date, rambly and someone everyone sort of half heartedly humors.

[batwing]

One of my former coworkers is super fundie Pentecostal. She was actually awesome and hilarious and one of my closest girlfriends until she married... wait for it... wait for it... a pastor! (obviously) I went to the wedding, no music or dancing and I made the mistake of wearing a dress that showed my tattoos, and she got knocked up pretty much immediately after the wedding and they moved into pastoral housing. When she got married we were going through a layoff at work and she had a connection with someone in HR, so she begged them to include her in the layoff and they did. Then, unemployment kept getting extended so she got to be a SAHM collecting unemployment for 2 years which she called "a blessing" :roll: I was laid off at the same time, and was busting my ass to find a job and take care of my family. The pastor couldn't seem to keep a position in the church and they moved around to five or six different churches in under 3 years time, and he also did construction on the side because the pastor gig wasn't so great. One of the churches he was trying to get in with turned out to be a bust because the head pastor church guy (sorry, atheist here and I have no idea how this stuff is organized, but he was The Big Dude) was bumping uglies with a 15 or 16 year old girl and possibly others.

Anyway, up until she married the dbag pastor, she was a lot of fun. She actually was one of the snarkiest women I've ever met, but we were on the same "team" so it worked out. She wasn't a good worker, she spent more time fixing her hair and texting than she did working. She also still dotted the "i" in her name with a heart... and she was 27 (she was over the fundie hill when she got married!) She was fundie at home, but besides her clothes and hair you'd have no clue she felt that way and she even hung out with Teh Gays at work without telling them they were sodomites. She had told me before that when she was fresh out of high school, before she committed herself to the church, she used to sneak into clubs with her friends, drink, and makeout with guys she didn't know. She didn't get obnoxious until she married and then it was like BAM God Warrior.

We have tried to keep in touch on facebook but I've been dropped like a hot potato for her church friends. I went to her baby shower and a coworker and I were the only non church people there. Nobody would sit by us or talk to us.

Her most recent facebook status was that her daughter, who is now about 2, was sitting in Pizza Hut shouting "JESUS!" at people and pointing (sounds like Trish and the Uh-Ohs!) and her saying how cute it was that her daughter was such a good Pentecostal. It got a shitload of likes from her church friends, and one lady told her that her daughter was proselytizing because the other patrons needed Jesus in their hearts.

[apple1]

Bullying in the workplace is alive and well, but in my personal experience, had absolutely nothing to do with fundy-ism, nor with any religious orientation. It also was not manager-driven. It was a group of women who united to make life absolutely miserable for a convenient target. In my estimation, there are a few women who just never mature emotionally past 6th-grade level. Nuff sed.

[PharmDMommy]

I don't know how to quote a post, but in regards to the bullying characteristics I think it depends on what you do, different work env require different approaches. For example, when I am at work, I work 12 hrs as the only RPh and I will have anywhere between 1-4 pharmacy technicians working under me. When I am there it is my license on the line, I am responsible for what they do. I'm not a bully, but whether people think all I do is slap a label on a bottle(so not true), the stakes are high. Medication errors kill.

So

1. Strict adherence to the rules. Absolutely! Not only do we have to follow company policy, we have to follow all state and federal laws regarding pharmacy practice and the DEA regs for controlled substances. In addition many of the company policies are there to prevent errors from happening. When I work both my staff and I cross our t's and dot our i's. End of discussion. If they don't like it, there is the door. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I'm not going to have to go before the board and explain how I let an error pass because my tech didn't like cuz policy that would have prevented it in the first place. And if it resulted in harm, I would be devastated.

A little girl in OH died from the wrong concentration of NaCl solution being added to her iv mix by a tech and was not caught by the RPh. Why? They were not following company procedure to the letter.

A physician can't decide to hang out in their office all day because the nurse wants to see And diagnosis and treat patients. Well what if the nurse thinks the dr is bullying her because of the strict adherence to rules?

2. 100% cheerful attitude. My job is customer service, I leave my personal probe at the door and I expect the same from my staff. Our patients a lot of times are sick, they waited a long time at the MD office, their frustrated with the price of their meds, etc... The last thing they need is an attitude from my 19 year old tech because she got in a fight with her bf. Our patients come to us over the 65 other places within 10 miles because we are quick, fun, helpful, and courteous. Sorry, if you are being paid to do a job and that job consists of having a positive attitude then while you are being paid that is what is expected. If it is something that is serious and really will effect your work then we need to talk about you taking a few days off.

3. Need for control. If I am not in control of what is going on at all times I am opening myself up for some serious liability. Also, what may come off as an extreme amount of control may be because of the employees themselves. Do they need to be babysat to get stuff done? Have you gone over something 100 times and it still gets done wrong. Do they even do the basic functions of their job.

I had a tech work for me who hated people. Why this person worked in retail bears me! They would pretend to be busy anytime a customer approached, even taking my phone calls (which only a pharmacist could take) to avoid it. I tried everything I could think of, nothing worked. The only thing that worked was for me to schedule every 1/2 hr of the techs time. Sounds controlling, it was the only way to keep my sanity. And they still hid every chance they got.

Sorry to be so off topic

[fundiefan]

I think they'd be more likely to cry persecution and be victims in the workplace. At least those who shout their hate and judgment on their blogs. While sitting in their own homes, with no direct contact with people, they control the communication process. They can block and ignore what they don't want to face or discuss. They can shout their beliefs and claim it as fact because there is no one to question them. In the work place, with direct, face to face communication people are right there in real time to respond, question, etc.

Could you imagine Jessica or Kendal in 'the office' spewing their crap and being able to stand up against opposing views? Without their 'headship' behind them to pat them on the back, vet what they say, etc...

Maybe it's because I have been very fortunate and have no direct experience with fundies, but I don't see them being able to push and shout and shove when standing on their own in an uncontrolled environment.

[Austin]

I don't know how to quote a post, but in regards to the bullying characteristics I think it depends on what you do, different work env require different approaches. For example, when I am at work, I work 12 hrs as the only RPh and I will have anywhere between 1-4 pharmacy technicians working under me. When I am there it is my license on the line, I am responsible for what they do. I'm not a bully, but whether people think all I do is slap a label on a bottle(so not true), the stakes are high. Medication errors kill.

So

1. Strict adherence to the rules. Absolutely! Not only do we have to follow company policy, we have to follow all state and federal laws regarding pharmacy practice and the DEA regs for controlled substances. In addition many of the company policies are there to prevent errors from happening. When I work both my staff and I cross our t's and dot our i's. End of discussion. If they don't like it, there is the door. I don't mean to sound harsh, but I'm not going to have to go before the board and explain how I let an error pass because my tech didn't like cuz policy that would have prevented it in the first place. And if it resulted in harm, I would be devastated.

A little girl in OH died from the wrong concentration of NaCl solution being added to her iv mix by a tech and was not caught by the RPh. Why? They were not following company procedure to the letter.

A physician can't decide to hang out in their office all day because the nurse wants to see And diagnosis and treat patients. Well what if the nurse thinks the dr is bullying her because of the strict adherence to rules?

2. 100% cheerful attitude. My job is customer service, I leave my personal probe at the door and I expect the same from my staff. Our patients a lot of times are sick, they waited a long time at the MD office, their frustrated with the price of their meds, etc... The last thing they need is an attitude from my 19 year old tech because she got in a fight with her bf. Our patients come to us over the 65 other places within 10 miles because we are quick, fun, helpful, and courteous. Sorry, if you are being paid to do a job and that job consists of having a positive attitude then while you are being paid that is what is expected. If it is something that is serious and really will effect your work then we need to talk about you taking a few days off.

3. Need for control. If I am not in control of what is going on at all times I am opening myself up for some serious liability. Also, what may come off as an extreme amount of control may be because of the employees themselves. Do they need to be babysat to get stuff done? Have you gone over something 100 times and it still gets done wrong. Do they even do the basic functions of their job.

I had a tech work for me who hated people. Why this person worked in retail bears me! They would pretend to be busy anytime a customer approached, even taking my phone calls (which only a pharmacist could take) to avoid it. I tried everything I could think of, nothing worked. The only thing that worked was for me to schedule every 1/2 hr of the techs time. Sounds controlling, it was the only way to keep my sanity. And they still hid every chance they got.

Sorry to be so off topic

Don't worry about O/T. . .

I totally get what you're saying and having supervised employees of one kind or another nearly all of my working life, I understand. The only license I hold, though, besides my driver's license is a property/casualty license which I've never used (another story) so I've never had quite those kind of stakes. I have been in high stakes financial situations, where if I couldn't make a business deal happen, our company would suffer, and that feels like pretty high stakes when people's livelihoods depend upon those of us in management doing our jobs right and going the extra mile. 2009 was an especially tough year in this regard b/c of the economy, but we managed to keep everyone on staff. (yay!)

My husband's career is dependent upon his ability to maintain a license, however, and he is a stickler for not only the "letter of the law" but also the "spirit of the law" professionally. He has refused to participate in certain things the governing body for his licensure prohibits, even though other colleagues do, so he is occasionally viewed as a killjoy or whatever. When he is directed by administration to participate in these things and he does not, I'm sure he is viewed as uncooperative. He's been doing his work, however, for 36 years and he gets good results even in difficult situations, so he manages just fine. Other than that type of thing, he is a very easy-going laid back person, but when the best interests of his students or his licensure is at stake (which sometimes go hand-in-hand), he is pretty intractable. I totally get this and respect this and think there is something wrong with people who don't.

However, and I'm not directing this at you personally, but since you broached it to a degree: I do think there are ways to deal with people that show them respect and even care and still let them know you mean business. I've worked with and for women who were just bitches for the sake of being bitches, even when it was completely unnecessary (not picking on women, as I've certainly had similiar experience with men who were jerks) or over-the-top. It is very easy to blame unnecessary nastiness on the importance or stress of the work. I have found that people perform better when they are not constantly being harangued and hassled. I know I do. A good training program helps, too, or setting up mentoring for new/younger employees. Some people are just lazy and ne'er-do-wells, no doubt, but some people just don't know what they don't know, so that's why I think that's important.

[justlurking]

I think they would be completely unable to deal with customers/clients/the general public. Like what if someone came into a business wearing a t-shirt they found offensive.

I worked with a born-again guy who was very vocal in his beliefs. He constantly made comments about Jews, so I just never told him I was one, though he eventually found out. He was ranting one day that the Jews were blocking good Christian entertainment like the Passion of the Christ (yea, this was awhile ago.) I complained but the company told me it didn't offend the customers, so just ignore him.

Once we were dealing with a group of Buddhists and he kept coming over to the supervisor with all these complaints about how rude and unruly they were. They were super polite, and it was clearly his issue. He got all worked up ranting about sin and the devil. I found out some of my other co-workers also had issues with the that I'm Jewish. I was also surprised by ones who defended me.

There can be fundie bullies of any religious persuasion. Our last HR director was/is Jewish and made very inappropriate statements about other religions. A coworker of mine was converting to Catholicism and was taking those classes that new candidates(?) are required to take. When the HR director heard about this she related to the woman that she had only been in a church once in her life (for the wedding of a friend) and when her daughter asked her about an image of Jesus on the cross (who is that?) she told her "oh that's nobody!" She then laughed in my coworkers face about her "witty" answer.

Another time she created a big stink about people decorating their offices for the holidays. Mind you, a couple of people decided to decorate the doors of their offices to look like presents--not something particularly religious; however, she raised an almighty stink and sent out a memo telling people that they couldn't put up ANY holiday decorations because it might be offensive to others (she being the only person). Nobody said a word when we had our holiday grab bag and she chose to wrap the gifts she gave in Hanukkah themed wrapping paper, and I'm sure nobody would've given a damn if she chose to put up a menorah on her office door, but she just couldn't stand to see/deal with other people's religious expressions/views.

[1004srs]

I hate office bullies - especially ones that pretend to the higher ups that they are nice. THe ones who tattle to "Mom" are the worst. They will antagonize others and then complain that people are being mean, if anyone says anything to them.

[PharmDMommy]

Austin

I agree with you. I know you didn't direct this at me, but I'd still like to answer. You defiantly have to respect and caremfor your employees, i agree 110%. What I was responding to was the assertion that if you performed your job in line with those 3 statements you are a bully. Can I be tough, yes ma'am! But not in a nasty way. A lot of times for me in particular I have young adults working for me and they are not educated in pharmacy. There is no need for them to be, they perform the "manual" labor so to speak. What can happen though is because of immaturity and lack of understanding is they do not realize the seriousness of what we are doing. They don't realize I'm not just making sure they typed a label correctly and selected the correct drug; that is just the beginning. I have to check for drug interactions, disease state interactions, duplications, appropriate dose. , etc... They'll tell us it doesn't matter if I do it right that is your job. (except for every wrong rx they give me my chance of making an error is greater). It can be difficult to make my staff realize they may have to do a few extra steps they feel aren't necessary, but are there for a reason and were put into place by a quality assurance team of PharmD's that know what they are doing. It can be very frustrating.

I also noticed with my under 21 crowd if I give an inch they take a mile or if one gets to leave 10 min early I'm playing favorites! Ahhh! But I'm not a tyrant and I make sure they know how much I appreciate them. Right now I have 2 really smart 19 is aged girls working and I'm trying so hard to encourage them to pursue some type of higher education in the healthcare field. The job they do now is not going to be fun in 5 yrs, ya know. I recently started doing small lessons with them as an I intro to medicine to get them thinking and I think I'm making progress. I would love to have an adequate training program! We get no training hrs beyond the 1 st day for 2 hrs of paperwork. Everything comes out of my budget, which means if we train someone we are hurting for a few weeks b/c we just don't have the help to dedicate someone to train a new employee. I can have 4 people max for an overlap of 2 hrs per day and usually it is just 2 techs and me. When we hire I end up running the pharmacy by myself (drop off, 5 phone lines, cas register, and drive through, plus my regular pharmacist duties). These places hang us out to dry. But really I would love to be able to send a Jeanie out for 2 weeks and have them come back even semi ready to go!

I don't know if this makes sense, but it's how I have to operate to not pull my eyeballs out through my nose! And now that I think about it isn't even my license so much as if a mistake I made resulted in a death or damage to the person I don't know what I would do...

And b/c you were so nice I'll tell you a very funny story. This happened my last year of school at a pharmacy near my school. I was an intern and being at the end I was fully capable of counseling patients without supervision. So I go to our conseltation window and there is young girl and her boyfriend and she tells me the tech said she wasn't due for a refill and she is out of medication and the computer is saying not due for 10 days. So I take her info (she's barely 18) and oddly enough she hands me her birth control wheel. I ask if she is going in vacation because that is the only reason she should need it early.

She starts yelling at me no look inside there is nothing left, which there isn't, I don't know what "you people" did but I need my medication. I ask my next standard question, how many are you taking? I take one a day what are you stupid I can read. So I go to the shelf and grab a new one to show her this is how they come we don't put the pills in you got 28 pills 14 days ago, are you sure you didn't miss a few and then double up but maybe linger then you should have. She's really pissed what is wrong with you are you not listening to me I know to only take one a day. Why am I out?

At this point I am stumped. I mean is the boyfriend trying to pull something and hiding her pills, tampering with them? Does she have an old pack that she mixed up and misplaced (no this is her first pack from campus health). I decide this isn't worth my time and grab a label and go to give her a new pack at no charge.

So as I hand her the bag her boyfriend pipes in " shouldn't we be getting two of those?". We? No she only needs one I checked their are 28 pills in there. "yeah but what happens in 2 weeks when there gone again"

WTF is he talking about? Did she not listen to my careful instructions in how to take them? Wall meet head right. So I slowly say if "dopey" takes one active pill every day for 21 days

And then 1 sugar pill every day for 7 days, she won't need a new pack for 28 days!!!

Dumb as rocks boyfriend looks at me and says do you know how the pill works? Who is this kid, what planet does he live on we just discussed this....so I tell him yeah I have a pretty good idea.

Well Rocks then lays this one on me.....well do you just not get math(ok seriously is this April fools, I am trying so hard to not snicker).....,because if "dopey" takes one every day and I take one every day don't you think we need two packs for a month!!!!! I almost died right there. My boss who had been standing at the counter behind me listening because he saw me getting frustrated earlier came swooping in to save the day and reteach bc 101 and I ran to the office and had to go home because I couldn't stop laughing!!!!!

[dormouse]

I'm so glad we have this thread, because I have a personal story about my last job. I was working in a team with 5 to 6 evangelical christian girls. I say girls because, since it was a part-time evening job, they were all college or university students, age 18 to 22, and living with their parents. They were also all Haitian. Don't hate me yet for saying that, it has to do with something in the story later on. At the beginning, we were getting along well, and they accepted my pushing-30, married, college drop-out, CFS/FM-disabled self, even if it broke their homogeneous "clique". They did talk a lot about church and God and who their respective pastors where, but I just ignored the conversation, joining in whenever the topic was something else. I had Haitian friends in high school, so I knew how church was a big part of their community and I respected that.

One of the girls started planning her wedding, and talking about it. Apparently, the minimum number of guests she could have was 300, probably because she was inviting her whole church. Knowing I was married, she started asking me question on how my wedding was. So I answered honestly that I couldn't help, that I got married at the courthouse without any guests except the witnesses, wearing a cream-colored skirt and top bought the day before at a department store, that my bouquet was daisies, and that we had a "hey, guess what, we're married" party our house the next day with parents and grandparents, with a cake from the corner bakery, some bubbly, and a wedding picture slideshow on our TV. So that no, I couldn't give her any advice on centerpieces or bridesmaid dresses. Then her and the other girls started picking on me: why didn't I get married in a church? why did I not honor my dad by letting him give me away? why didn't I wear a proper white wedding dress? and also, my favorite, why did I let go of my only chance to be a queen, a princess, the center of attention for a day? annoyed, I answered "doesn't the Bible say 'the meek shall inherit the earth?'" Oddly enough, they didn't know that verse.

A couple day after that incident, it was a real sauna in the office. It happened often in the winter, the heat was cranked up to the max. So I removed my cardigan, and had a cap-sleeve t-shirt, so my tattoo was visible. It is a lotus flower. The bride-to-be noticed it, and asked what it was. I was a bit offended, as it is clearly a lotus growing in a pond of water (http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=5 ... =704665134). Commenting on someone's tattoo is as rude as saying they are fat or have a big nose, in my opinion. She said it looked like nothing. I started explaining the meaning, using the quote from the movie Mulan ("the flower that blooms in adversity is the most rare and beautiful of all"), which most people know. She asked me if I was Buddhist, and I said no, that I was an atheist but interested in the Buddhist philosophy, and if I ever followed a religion it would definitely be Buddhism. When asked a question, I answer honestly, and never had a problem at my previous jobs. True, my previous jobs were in arts and entertainment, so I was with like-minded people, while the job I am talking about now was in an insurance company, so more serious and 'corporate'. I was in the mail room.

On a quiet day before Christmas, we were allowed to have the TV on. On the news, they were talking about those atheist ads on buses and billboards, such as "this season, celebrate reason". My co-workers started complaining, saying that atheist didn't need to be so vocal. I said: "there are lots of christian billboards, so why can't atheists have some too?". Then the bullying and harrassment started. They said I had no moral because I did not believe in a deity. They put their music on, and I decided to put my Ipod on with headphones. That's where the skin color part I had mentioned earlier starts being relevent... the music was Rihanna or Nicky Minaj, I don't exactly remember, so when I put my headphones on, they started saying that I was doing so because I was a racist and their music was "too black for me" so that's why I was putting my headphones on to listen to my "evil satanist White-power metal" (what's funny is that I was listening to metal, yes, but it was Disturbed, whose lead singer is an Israeli Jew). They went complaining to the manager that I was a racist, and that I was wearing a swastika necklace. The necklace in question was a silver Celtic triskelion (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskelion) that was given to me by my Breton grandparents when I was 12 and never removed, so my co-workers had seen me with it every day since I had been hired 3 months earlier!!! I told the manager my necklace was not a racist symbol of any kind, not even really religious. He said: "the way they see it, you are showing your Celtic pride, thus your White pride, and it offends them. Besides, they say that you are constantly bullying them because of their Christian faith. You know that we have a no-religion and no-politics talk here!". I couldn't believe it, and started crying. I left that day, not even bothering to take my stuff (cheap shoes and some tea). I wanted a fresh start for 2011, and I got it.

People ask me why I prefer jobs in arts and entertainment, with its low salaries and zero-benefits... well, you got your answer!

[MamaJunebug]

School district I used to live/pay taxes in was as corrupt as any. The gatekeeper in the administration building had uncut hair piled high and sprayed stiff, never wore makeup, wore expensive jewelry, never wore slacks, always wore skirts, had every person who entered the building in a state of terror unless it was the superintendent. Never cracked a smile.

I don't know if she was a fundamentalist, but she sure looked like one, and she was widely feared.

The schools themselves were still good when the Juniors attended. Have no idea about now.