the reason

I work across the hall from a lady named Bettie Jo. Bettie is in her mid-thirties and has been with the company for 15 years. Granted, she knows her job well, but this is where my praise for her ends. She’s one of those people who are not very intelligent yet feel they know everything. She also loves to complain…about the weather, her kids, her extremely wide hips, and how she ‘always has to do everything around here!’

She works as our Delinquent Accounts Manager and takes over the billing process from me for clients whose bills become past due by over 30 days. Bettie Jo spends a large part of her day in her friend’s office right next to hers. “Can I tell you something…?” I’ll hear from where I sit behind my desk, certain that a 30 minute story is about to ensue.

Often these stories involve her husband, who she calls on the phone several times each day. I know exactly when she’s talking to him because she’ll say, “you’re such an ass!” or “I can’t stand you!” or “don’t be an idiot!” followed by the sound of a telephone being slammed down.

My current position in the billing department has made me the fourth person to hold this job in the past 16 months. And it now appears that Bettie Jo has decided that a new and improved fifth person should resume my post behind my desk.

Bettie Jo is good friends with my supervisor, which is unfortunate for me. She emails my boss with the same frequency that the kindergarten tattletale would run up to the teacher's desk with new information regarding her classmates. Billy was coloring outside the lines, or Sally ate a cracker that fell on the floor.

In the past week, I’ve had to meet with my boss twice; once because Bettie Jo ‘overheard’ me tell a client that the billing process begins on the 15th of each month, when it should have been clear to anyone with a brain that the billing process does NOT begin on the 15th of each month, because those months that have five weeks in them have two billing cycles. And once because I was incorrectly putting the payment due date in the lower right hand corner when it clearly should have been written in BOTH the upper left hand corner and again in the lower right hand corner.

The higher-ups have been wondering why they have such a hard time keeping someone in my current position. And while I’m really no smarter than the next person, I think that the answer is quite obvious.

It’s Bettie Jo.