Anyone that reads this blog or my personal blog Kazoofus probably knows that my pet peeves change with dang near every breath I take. Just browse through the Who Stole My Stapler archives for proof of some of my workplace and career pet peeves.

I just read an article on Women’s Health Magazine that reminded me of something that I have a hard time comprehending:

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A few years ago I was on a large company project where key resources worked in multiple locations throughout the United States. I joined the project when it was in an official state of chaos or in project lingo “status: red”. The entire team was stressed out and the Project Manager and Program Manager were overwhelmed with the size, scope and complexity of the project. They were unsure of how to get things back on track.

I did not enter the scene with any answers for them in fact, I peppered them with a whole lot of questions as I tried to wrap my brain around the size, scope and complexity of the project. Within my first week on the project I was dizzy with the number of directions the Program Manager, Project Manager and now I were being pulled. I realized in that first week that if I didn’t start taking notes I would never be able to get it all straight.

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I am finally back to work after a long slow recovery from surgery. I was out of the office for six weeks and during that leave I had some time to browse the internets. One of my world wide hangouts is Work It, Mom of course.

Recently I asked a question in a Work It, Mom forum trying to uncover how women view their career and what they feel holds them back from achieving career success. The results were not entirely shocking to me. It was noted by one mother that she feels raising her children is her top priority at this point. A list of mothers noted something that I have heard from women before.

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Ever have one of those days where the B.S. (Brown Sugar) that you have received from everyone else is enough to make you want to seek out the nearest bell tower?

Yeah, me too.

I am typically really good at dealing with difficult personalities.  Whatever their character flaw may be, I can usually counterbalance it with little to no effort.  The problem is that every now and again I get TIRED of dealing with the cRaZiEs.

Welcome to Now and Again.  Would you like to supersize?

I’m not going to get into specifics about people I have dealt with recently.  Mostly because people that I deal with on a daily basis actually read these posts.  But I will give a high-level list of what I call:

Ways to drive KathyHowe batshit in the office:

(Note to co-workers: this is NOT meant to inspire).

1. Not replying to emails when it is made clear that ACTION is REQUIRED and you are given a HARD DEADLINE in the message.  If you can’t complete the task on time at least have the courtesy to REPLY WITH THAT INFORMATION!
2. Emailing my MANAGER’S MANAGER to tell on me when I don’t reply to your email marked as normal priority within five business hours.  If your message is urgent please flag it as such or pick up the dogdamn phone.
3. Spending 10 minutes bitching about doing a task that will take you 5 minutes to complete.  That is like good time management but totally different.
4. Doing my job for me.  I would be MORE than happy to stop attending project meetings if you would like to just handle everything, superstar.
5. You are more often the voice of the problem (if not the source of it) and you have nothing to offer in terms of a solution.

Now I know all of you had had the pleasure of working with difficult, challenging or otherwise asshole people.  Share your stories.  What drives YOU batshit?