Oh, how I wish this was in the past. But it's not. I have this co-worker NOW who drives me up the friggin' wall. She pretty much drives everyone up the friggin' wall. She's driven me up the wall for a long time. Perhaps I'm crabby about it because of my workload, but I truly think she's gotten worse.

I'm one of those people who keeps their head down and works while at their desk. For the most part anyway; I can't help it if I get visitors who want to come talk to me. But I'm generally able to keep those visits to a minimum and get back to my job.

My co-worker (we'll call her "Gabby") is NOT one of those people. She has her nose in everybody's business and wants to share what she knows with anyone that will listen. I've had several talks with her about the fact that I do *NOT* want to hear office gossip and I do not want to talk about anybody that I work with unless it's in the best light. I'm serious about that, too. I do not speak poorly about people I work with. At work, anyway. Now the bearded eye-roller and my sis have received an ear-full, but I feel that's OK.

I am professional at work, but gotta vent somewhere, right? And now? I'm going to vent here too because I'm at the end of my rope with Gabby. The other co-worker is another story, but she's harmless, so I'm going to cut her some slack.

Gabby's response to my request for no gossip was, "Well, I didn't think it was gossip because it was factual AND I didn't say, 'you didn't hear this from me' "

Huh? Give me a break. My point was, I do not want to hear anything negative about another person. Period. I don't care if it's factual or not. And that statement about not saying 'you didn't hear this from me' is about the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.

I mentioned my workload a while back, and I think we all agree that I'm OVERWHELMED with work right now. The fact is, I have more on my plate than my two co-workers put together. I'm not going to be a crybaby about it because I have a kick-ass job and am lucky to have it. I just keep my head in my work and plug along, knowing that by October it should let up and I will be back to life as I know it.

Gabby tried giving me UNSOLICITED advice about this workload the other day. "You need to have (manager) tell you your priorities. That's what I do. I tell her I have too much work and then ask her what she wants me to do first"

I said, "All of my work is priority. I accept that and I deal with it." She looked at me as if I was a Martian.

The other day someone who sits in my area commented on how busy I looked. She said that I looked very stressed out and looked like I had way too much on my plate, just like Gabby.

I wanted to say, ARE YOU KIDDING ME? If she's so busy, why did I see her take almost two hours to make a 'welcome' graphic. Rather than just type the word welcome, she decided to make a graphic. I could see her head bobbing back and forth, admiring her welcome graphic- then changing it, then admiring it some more. I wanted to go up to her and smack her in the back of the head and tell her to get to work.

To add insult to injury, this same person also said to me yesterday that she really liked the SharePoint (it's a MS application) site that Gabby created for review purposes. HUH? I created that site. I didn't want to act like a jerk about it, so I just let her believe that Gabby created it. Stuff like that just makes the veins pop out in my neck.

But none of this drives me crazy as much as how unprofessional she is with our business partners. She chums up to them and starts gossiping with them and sharing her conspiracy theories with them. Seriously- she tells people things like, "I know they are 'acting' like they are stupid- but it's all an act. They're really trying to get you to do all of their work".

I've heard her throw people under the bus more times than I can count. I'm sure I've been thrown under the bus a few times too, but I don't worry about it because my reputation is squeaky clean.

Yesterday, I heard her for over an hour gossiping with a business partner. Wow- for being so busy, she sure has a lot of time on her hands. The calls always start out as business, and then they morph into something bizarre.

Yesterday in two different business conversations: "OK, I need to talk to you about something, but I want to make sure I'm not on speakerphone". "I'm not normally paranoid like this, but..." "Now you didn't hear this from me, but..." "don't assume I'm taking their side on this..."

First of all, I think whatever you need to say to a business partner, you should be able to say over speakerphone- unless it's insider information. Something I guarantee she's not privy to. Second? The rest of this is just ridiculous. This is not professional.at.all. I feel like she is a reflection on our department, and a bad one at that.

I'm so glad I work from home three days a week, otherwise you might be reading about my prison sentence in the paper. I am seriously knotted up at the end of the days I'm in the office. Thank goodness I have such nice things to come home to.

Our manager is quite aware of most of this, and has tried to reign her in. But you can talk to Gabby a million times and say the same thing over and over again and it never sinks in. I'm not going to go 'tattling' on Gabby for each indiscretion because I'm sure even hearing Gabby's name makes the hairs stand up on the back of my manager's neck. Gabby is completely unaware of how horrible she is. She thinks she's doing people favors under the guise of being 'helpful'. "Well, I'm helping them see what so-and-so is doing".

No, no she's not. She's causing harm. Most of the time what 'so-and-so is doing' is a figment of Gabby's imagination. Even if it's not? It's never any of her business.

Sadly, we have a hiring freeze at our company, so firing her would only make it worse on me. Gah- now I'm all worked up again.

Thankfully I work from home today. I don't have to deal with Gabby until Tuesday.

What an idiot. And I say that in the kindness, most wonderful light. Oh, and bless her heart (that cancels out anything negative I've written.)