Drama in the Work Place

As you may have gathered from the last 2 entries, there was a “drama” with various women at Felesky Flynn.  Two long time assistants felt they owned the place and would sometimes take the low road in marginalizing, or at least attempting to marginalize, certain women.  Some folks stayed very neutral and naturally this was my instinct as well.  I dislike conflict of any kind but especially in the work place.  Hence Janet and I walking a lot back in the day.  We also had a couple, lawyer and wife, who made things extremely AWFUL.  
I hadn’t been long in the firm, only a few weeks, when this couple’s assistant went on sick leave (and later quit).  I had the unhappy experience of being asked to ‘pitch in’ but within 3 days I had to take a sick day because the woman made my life a living hell.  The next day I went to HR and said ‘please don’t assign me to them permanently’ and thankfully the answer was “I would never do that to you”.  Thank the lord.

But soon another young lady came into the office and had the unhappy misfortune to work for them.  Gillian was a darling from the very beginning.  I looked into her warm brown eyes, saw anxiety there and soon learned that not only was she just recovering from breast cancer but she had been out of the “serious” work force for some time.  To be thrown into this situation was the worst possible thing for Gill but amazingly she survived for more than 5 years!  I will never, ever forget our first “meeting” when she had to vent about what was going on.  There we were in the washroom and so scared to have Donna discover us that Gill was up on the toilet seat (in her shoes, not sitting down, just to be clear) while I stood in front of her and listened to her whispered troubles.  Could anything so absurd be anything but the beginning of a lifelong friendship?

Gillian is another “weekender” to Blind Bay, she was part of my book club (coming up soon) and she has been so amazingly wonderful in my egg business development.  On top of all that, she is one of my strongest supporters in my illness.  She emails me daily, encouraging me and advising me to forgive myself and not work so hard.  She is one of the true Mother Earths in my life.  I could not be more blessed and yet I still have more than 15 friendships to go.

It’s no joke, no word whisker, no motherhood statement.  My cup runneth over