blarg

Mergablergamerg.

I don't want to have to go back to work when I wake up. :(

There's been tooooooonnnns of drama lately and 90% of it has been specifically directed at me.
Makes an already physically exhausting and painful job just that much more fun to deal with, yippee.

There was so much drama, just on Wednesday night, that one of my co-workers felt the need to call me on Thursday just to vent for almost 3 hours about how bad it all is. This is a person who, even though she's had my phone number for literally months now, has never more than texted me on important work related subjects before. But it got her so riled up that she had to vent for almost 3 hours.

She thinks the other people who are regularly in the Prep department are intentionally "sabotaging" me. >.<

She's not exactly wrong, either. They've been giant baby brats in the last couple of weeks and alternately being snippy with me and then refusing to acknowledge my existence when I'm standing right the hell in front of them.

I do the Prep recorder position (I know that means nothing to you), but it's kinda crap and also kinda a position of authority, or at least, it has become one. Anyhow, before I came into the Prep department there, no one would do the recorder position for a whole shift because they all hate it so much.
...............I do it every single day for all 10 hours of the shift, and I don't take unnecessary breaks or wander off to dick around or talk with my friends or take mysterious 45 min bathroom breaks like these other girls do.

And I've always been very polite with them and basically let them do their own thing and although the constant talking and break taking drives me bonkers this is one of those tight knit clique things that you will always be on the outside of and we can make it easy for you or we can make it hell for you, which will it be. Do you know the type?

And last week one of the girls who was helping to prep record at another station, comes over and asks me if I can speed up because she's exhausted from prep recording (she'd been doing it for 4 hours at that point.) I smiled at her and said "Okay, but I have been finishing pallets at the same rate as you." To which she sneered at me said "I don't think so," turned around, walked off, and got one of her friends from the little clique to "help her" prep record for the rest of the night, both of them talking about me to each other and the other people in prep and yet refusing to make eye contact with me or speak to me for the rest of the 6 hour shift.

And I know I actually was keeping rate with her, because it's my effing job to track how many pallets get done. -_-

That was a mild night. Wednesday was something completely else. Like nonstop drama from start to finish. Nonstop bitchiness from start to finish. Breaking Prep rules specifically just to give me (and the other people in prep who are not part of their group and therefore like me) a hard time.

Basically, there's no PA (assistant manager type role) that is in charge of Prep right now and the managers have asked me to pick up the slack there and pseudo manage. So I keep track of the inventory (pallets in, pallets out) and I monitor the rate (it's a collective rate) and I give feedback on the rate, telling the group what percentage we're at. They also want me to assign the Prep members to the individual tasks (there's basically 3 tasks, recorder, regular prep-er, and prep receiver). So, they gave me more responsibility with no authority except bitchiness behind it, and I don't like being a bitch.

They are forcing my hand in the bitchiness department. Basically, they're annoyed that the managers chose me to have this fake authority role (probably because I actually expect everyone to work at work and not stand around doing nothing for half an hour while every one has to pick up their slack) and definitely because they view me as an outsider. I did prep on the TFC1 side of the building, but when they combined the two sides, they moved everyone from TFC1 over to PHX6, and since they'd been working in that area the whole time they viewed it as "their area" and that all of us were "new" or less experienced, even though some of us have actually worked for Amazon longer.

So basically, this group of girls, there's about 5 of them, but 2 of them are the real ringleaders, are looking for an excuse to get me thrown out of the Prep area so they can go back to bossing everyone around like they used to before I got there.

The only thing I have going on my side in this situation is that the managers know me well enough (I hope!) to know I don't mess around at work and that I don't ever abuse my fake authority.

I have to work with these people 40 hrs a week. I try to be polite and even so far as kind. One of the girls who's leading the bitchiness revolution hates receiving but she's one of the few with permission to do it. Instead of flat out telling her she has to do it (which I could, my fake authority extends so far) I tell her "I'm putting you in charge of getting a prep receiver, so please find someone who can do it for you, or do it for yourself."
And she sneers at me, walks away, doesn't do what I asked for 15 minutes (our group rate is dropping 30%, this whole time, which hurt everyone) until the manager comes over and asks me why we don't have another prep receiver. I tell him I asked Vivian to either find a receiver or to do it herself and she hasn't yet, but I'll follow up with her. He asked me: "She didn't want to do it?" "No." "Oh, okay." and he walks away.

After that Vivian got one of her cohorts to receive for her....the other ringleader of Bitch, who also happens to be several months pregnant. Great job, making your pregnant friend do the job where you have to lift heavy things and move fast.

Blah blah blah, there's soooooooooooooooooooooooo much drama that happens there. This is just the tip of the huuuuuge bobbing iceberg.

I want them to stop being bitches, I want to not have to be a bitch in turn (though I will if it comes to that and the Managers are willing to back up that what I say goes), and I do hope that the Managers are aware enough of the crap that's going on to be willing to say something like that.

I haven't tried pushing my luck on the issue, because I'm worried that the managers will just blindly punish everyone for the drama, including myself, when I haven't done anything to provoke it. Or (in it's own way just as bad) that the managers will back me up and help take care of it, but will also lose respect for my ability to handle the situation there.
Not a great perception for them to have of me if I ever want to get a Tier 3 job. :\

But, though the issue has been getting progressively worse for several weeks, I have not pushed it, but the coworker who was upset about what happened enough to need to vent to me, she says she wants to talk to the managers tomorrow (today when I wake up).

This could be an opportunity to fix the issue.

Or nothing will change from the managers' perspective and the drama will increase tenfold when the bitch clique think I'm sending people to "tattle" on them behind their backs.

And, yes, I know about all that HR bullshit about working conditions and hostility and all that. But the fact of the matter is, I've never seen anyone use that process to resolve an issue without it reflecting back on them in negative ways. (Even though, yes, I know that's also against the rules. But people develop perceptions and it's not against the rules to turn down an otherwise qualified applicant in favor of another qualified applicant because you felt one would be "a better fit with the team". And it's not against the rules to make that sort of judgement call, every time.)

And I don't know the managers and the process enough to know if they're the type to honor it or to brush it aside in annoyance.

blllaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh.

I was trying to post something that wasn't a stupid, pointless, self-pitying rant that I will regret in a week.

:| I'm not so sure I succeeded on that front.

Instead, for entirely different tone, you should read the posts I made on my other (very much currently neglected) blog.

I need to write more drabbles or have literary related things to say so I post there more often.

Or maybe I need to broaden the scope of the blog.