A funny thing happened at work today…

…well actually yesterday.  You see, there’s this person at work.  They have been the BANE OF MY EXISTENCE for nearly two years now.  They go behind my group’s back, second guess everything we do, claim to be an “IT expert” even though they are in a totally non-IT position, and generally makes a huge nuisance of themself.  The kind of person, when they call or email everyone rolls their eyes and says “Oh, great.  It’s so-and-so.”  I’ve gotten to the point, in fact, where I will not even communicate any longer with this person, choosing to hide behind my supervisor (who lets me) and our business analysts (who think they can handle them). 

So what’s funny you ask?  Well..I’ve never met this person.  Not ever.  If I was standing next to them in the grocery line, I’d have not the faintest clue.  Until yesterday, that is.

I get sucked in to THE PROJECT.  I tried to avoid it for as long as I could, but I finally had to buckle down and do the work.  But I got it done.  On time.  Cuz I’m just that good.  Anway…the clients (one of them being this person) wanted to have A MEETING because they were confused over how to use my easy-to-use program.  I was dreading this meeting, because I knew it would be the first time I set eyes on THE NEMESIS, and I was concerned that I would not be able to keep my mouth shut, and I would say something I regretted.  Yeah, this person makes me that angry.  And then…

They were nice.  DAMMIT!!!!  I HATE THAT!!!!  They even gave me a hug and said what a great job I did.  ARGH.  I mean, that doesn’t change the fact that we were manipulated into doing this work, but still…I can’t hate them anymore.  And I’m pissed.

Ok I’m not *really* pissed…just…I knew that would happen.  I knew it.  And I mean, what does that say about our preferred methods of communication now (email, phone, email, text, IM, email)?  So much is lost in the technical translation, that what may very well be innocent or well-meaning or honest communication is so easily colored by interpretation.  It reminded me just how important, how necessary face-to-face communication is.  So next time you want to chat with a friend, or talk to a loved one…do it in person.  You’ll say so much more without saying a single word then you ever could with an email.