In July I was finally given permission to hire a part-time administrative assistant at work. This position was budgeted at the beginning of the year but, like all positions at work, it seems to take months for them to get around to hiring someone. It has been very frustrating for me as I continued to see my work pile up with the bottom of the stack becoming further and further out of sight.

When a friend lost his job, I saw an opportunity since I knew he would be able to do my data entry work and get me caught up on the filing. And so he was hired. While his desk was located in the contributions office with 2 other people, it still seemed it would work out. He was going to school part-time so the 20 hours per week schedule was ok with him for the present time.

I spent countless hours training him, and he was finally at the point where I could rely on him to get all the bills entered, print the checks and get them mailed out every week–saving me about 2 days of work each week. The only real problem that surfaced early on had to do with him listening to an ipod while working–and that’s where the bitch comes into play.

He told me that she informed him that he was not permitted to have earphones on while in her office because she felt it appeared rude to parishioners who came into the office. I went to bat for him telling the powers that be that I thought this was riduculous. And, it appeared I had won when he was given the word that he could continue listening to his music provided he didn’t sing along. Reasonable, in my opinion. And that was the end of it. Or so I thought.

This morning I was told that he would be let go at the end of the day today. Not because of work related problems, but because the bitch had decided she couldn’t work with him…the fit was just not good. He was told there wasn’t room for him in her office any longer because she had someone else coming in do work for her and he wouldn’t be able to sit at that desk.

When I asked about getting my work done, it was determined that I would have to muddle through and do the work myself as there were no funds to pay for another part-time person. Basically, she got in the final word and it was “fuck you!”

I’m looking forward to the day when she comes to me asking for an emergency check or some other favor. Guess what my response will be.