A Problem of mine has always been my inability to say the words I really want to say at the exact moment I want to say it. I put it down to the fact I always process my thoughts, I think about the impact what I'm about to say will make. When I'm a little tipsy or drunk i'm fine top say exactly what i want when I want to. It's always been the case with me, and I've always hated that about myself..

Where am i going with this you may ask......... Rewind about 10 weeks. We start the busy period at my workplace, baring in mind there are only 8 of us in the office, we had just started a new system and we were getting about 1000 orders a month. We all felt we needed extra help. Around the same time my boss Richard sold part of his business, (i'm not sure how much for but let's just say the next week he turned up for work in a brand new Aston Martin) to celebrate we went for drinks at a new bar in Birmingham. Drunk was not the word for how bad I was, but that's a different blog. Anyway the subject arose about possible recruitments to help with the busy period, my boss said he was thinking the same thing, this came as a suprise to me as he doesn't get involved with the day to day processes of our office, so I didn't think he would know how tight we were, but he did. He then introduced us all to our new workmate Dave.

It's weird, because I knew exactly what was going to occur within the next 10 weeks but everyone thought I was being stupid. It's no consolation to know I was right. Dave is Richards best friend, enough said. Anyone knows if you work with your friends and they are in a higher position it'll go one of two ways. You either piss each other off or you piss everyone else in the office off. In this instance it was the latter.

I'm going to go off on a bit of a rant now so bare with me. I'm venting, my wife's had it, my friends have had it, even my parents have had this rant.

The first person who told the boss what he felt got the shit treatment and eventually quit, so this isn't a simple situation of let him know how you feel, because you never know what's going to happen with him, he's the nicest guy one minute but if he's got the hump with you he's a right bastard.

The first thing that upset me about Dave's appointment was the fact that every single one of us in the office had to have a three month probation people as you would expect, to see if you're up to the job. But Dave just walked right into a contract, that was a mistake. Over the next few weeks you could see the little favours he would get, he would sit and chat with Richard all the time doing as little work as possible. They would both finish early so they could go to the gym together. I don't care if my boss finishes early, but why have Dave leave early as well. He could wait until the working day is done. I wouldn't usually care this much, but i'm putting in 15 hours overtime a week to try and cope with everything and Dave goes home early because he's the bosses friend. Little did I know it would get worse than this. Fast forward to mid December, everyone in the office has by know grown tired of Dave's lazy antics. The office manager Louise has said something to Richard, but he laughs it off and claims there isn't a problem. He screwed up when he was processing the cheques for the office (Dave has an accountancy degree and he can't count) and Richard won't say anything. It's around this time that Dave ask's for a day off the following week so he could go Christmas shopping. We are swamped with orders, backed up to October and he ask's for a day off so he can go shopping. Everyone else chose an evening or a weekend, but it's too much for Dave. Loise said no anyway because he was giving her three day's notice. Monday come's along, where's Dave, where's Richard come to think of it. Louise gets an e-mail from Richard saying that he and Dave are going shopping. I cannot begin to tell you how much this pissed me off, how it pissed everyone in the office. Not only had they gone off when we're at our busiest but, they blatantly and some may say intetionally undermined Louise's authority as office manager. I'm sure there would be plenty of other saga's to come from Dave and Richard, but Dave quit last week, his last day is Friday and how does he spend his final week........... I wouldn't know he's been sick the past two days with a migraine. I do however know that his resignation came about when Richard stopped playing favouritism and actually made him do work and started picking up on his mistakes, which we had been showing him for the past two and a half months.

I keep thinking, if id said something earlier, or if we'd all rallyed round Richard to do something about Dave earlier, we could have got rid of him earlier........... Oh well hindsight.

earlosmac