"The Gestapo's tactics"
September 04, 2001, 8:52 p.m.

The Gestapo was on my case today - way too much. She sat there in her office and decided today she was going to supervise my team. She kept pointing out things that the people on my team were doing wrong. - No rather, she searched aggresively to find things wrong.

"Rebecca's eating at her desk. You need to go say something to her." I immediately had an image of Rebecca with a plate of food and silverware. So I went to her desk and didn't see anything wrong. She only had a cup and a small bottle of juice sitting there."

"She's still eating. Go look. Didn't you say anything to her?" I got up and went again to Rebecca's desk and noticed that she had soup in her cup. I thought - no, I'm fine with that. We don't want folks to bring meals to their desks sure, but soup in a cup? Gimme a break!

"George is sending the apps to the wrong station in the computer. Tell him to stop doing that." I looked at The Gestapo and sighed. Instead of getting up, I asked her to show me the apps she was talking about. She showed me and sure enough, she was right. I told her I would talk with him.

"You need to send an email to your people right away and remind them that our rates changed today." I asked her why. She said a manager called in this morning and asked about the new rates and that one of the people answering the phones didn't know anything about it. I asked her to tell me which person on my team didn't know this information. She said the manager couldn't remember who it was. So, I decided not to send the message.

The problem here is that The Gestapo thinks she is my manager but she's not. She is a co-worker. She is the manager of the group next to mine. Although she's pretty funny sometimes and has a good sense of humor when she's in the mood to be - she certainly can be a real pushy broad and get on everyone's nerves. Like today.

I told her she needed to take a chill-pill and go off by herself somewhere. She laughed.

I'm glad.

Hope she's not wearing her boots again tomorrow.