The Aged Male

Going to work is something that most people have to do to afford all of life’s necessities.  If you’re lucky, you have a job doing something you love to do.  But sometimes even when you are doing your dream job, you may not be doing it with your dream coworkers.

With so many personalities in one office there is bound to be some conflict, at some point, with somebody.  There is really no way around it.  Fortunately, there are some things that you can do to minimize how much of the conflict you have to be a part of.  Sticking to a few of the golden rules can shield you from the aftermath of whatever inner office war that happens to have started at any given point during the work week.  But there is nothing that can fully protect you from the office drama queen; especially if she is the queen bee in charge.

This drama queen, slash office manager, is usually the jack of all trades when it comes to running a small office or department.  In some ways she is invaluable to the real manager, or owner of the business.  But in other ways, she is a major liability to the business, but is too good at what she does to go too far in obvious ways.  She knows how far she can go, and is always flirting dangerously with the very edge.

What makes this major drama queen, a major pain, is her never ending complaints and gossip.  To most of the people who work closely with her, it doesn’t look like she gets very much work done.  Not in the efficient quality way that she could if she were not so busy causing trouble.

One of the popular pastimes of the office drama queen is playing one coworker against the other.  She will be very convincing in her anger and outrage against the other person.  She will try to tell you all about how their many sins, but whatever you do, do not ever give your attention to this conversation.  Look away, change the subject, or simply talk about the person in a positive way.  This could shut her up and make her go to somebody else who will listen.

Another of her favorites is exaggerating, or adding to, a comment that the boss has made in order to make it sound as though he has an issue with somebody, or everybody in the office.  If you give your attention to this, she will drive you crazy with curiosity over what the boss is upset about.  Looking to her like she has valuable information will only add fuel to her drama fire and usually everybody gets burned in the end.  Ignore it and put it out of your head.  If the boss had something that important to say, he would say it to whoever needed to know.

The best way to stay drama free as well as saving your energy and sanity is to stay on task, and talk as little as possible, about personal matters or feelings, with this person.  Limit the amount of time you spend at her desk.  Do not go to lunch with her.  Do not do things outside of work with her.  And above all else, never become the unwitting co-star in her drama because it will never have a happy ending.

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