Mental Illness Has Exploded At Work

On Tuesday, Purple came into work and was in a blah mood. She was giving off some peculiar vibes and I wasn't the only one who noticed. So, already I was on my toes, my back was up, stress was building. And then I went on lunch. I need to let you know that there are three Assistant Managers (myself included) and a Manager. This is important because we were all in attendance on Tuesday. So she had some sort of issue at cash, and instead of calling one of the other three, she called me. I mean, it's annoying, but fine. I decide to swallow the food I'm eating before calling her. This was clearly the incorrect action. I should have magically picked up a phone (that I wasn't actually right beside), and called her, and talked with a mouthful of food. It took me roughly forty seconds to swallow my food and get up and go to the closest phone. But no, my friends, I wasn't fast enough. While I was calling the phone she was at, she stormed through two sets of doors to the staff room, nearly knocking a pharmacy staff member out with one of the doors. And then she rudely demands to know if we can return stamps. Yep. She was raging because she didn't know if we could return stamps. In case you're wondering, no. But luckily the Manager was there and said he would handle it since I was on lunch. This was the first actual incident of the day. Oh, aside from her snidely assuming that I was obligated to give staff Christmas Cards. Just so you know, no, I'm not. No one is. It's just a nice thing to do and she decided to be a bitch about that as well. But hey, no big deal; misery loves company. 

The second incident, I was helping a customer and she paged for backup while the main cashier was on break. And I didn't go right away, so one of the other Assistant Managers kindly went. This further enraged her for some reason. I think she thought that I was deliberately ignoring her pages for help. Just so you are aware, when I am at work, I am professional. I follow every standard set in place, every policy, I treat everyone at work professionally, etc. I would never ignore a page for help at the cash area; I've been there. I literally started there when I first began working at this pharmacy. But, if I am in the midst of already helping a customer, I will not just suddenly stop them mid sentence and fuck off to the front cash area, when there are plenty of people who can go and do it. Of course, that doesn't matter when you've recently got on the train to Crazy Town. So she has become that person. Later, on her lunch, she was normal. Like, making a joke with me when I went through to ask the Store Administrator a question. What. But after lunch, she was back to being crazy again. Purple completely lost her mind at the Manager about how I wasn't answering any calls and that I was useless. Let me be clear and remind you all about how my job isn't to stand by a phone and to wait for her to call. She isn't my boss. I have other things to do during a day. I can't magically be at her beck and call. She then switched over to telling the Manager that she gets uncomfortable when he talks about his girlfriend around her. Uh, not his problem? It's not his fault she's decided they are soulmates when he hasn't even hinted at romantic interest. So yeah. She went off the hinges. 

This day resulted in my being unfriended on facebook by her. LOL And it also resulted in the next day with me being in a meeting with the Manager and the Associate for an hour. Because, she's been behaving like this for a while, guys. Just before our work Christmas party, she raged at one of the Assistant Mangers and the Manager about how if anyone called in sick the next day, she'd leave the keys on the Managers desk and just walk away. And then she did the same thing to me while I was serving a customer. She rudely started talking to my back (major pet peeve of mine) and raised her voice over a customer who was talking to me, just so she could, I don't know, be a cunt? I have no idea. And then she said goodbye and left me with the fallout of that nonsense. She's thrown keys at the Manager, screamed at staff, been ragey. Oh, and on Tuesday when this whole situation came to a head? The other cashier was certain she was drinking on the job. No one else got close enough to be able to tell. But she spent the whole day telling him nasty things. Apparently she's the smartest person at our place of work. Nope. I highly doubt that. She decided this because she tried to understand a joke the one cashier and I had developed over time and when we both didn't immediately get it, that meant we were stupid. I'm not saying I'm smarter than her, I'm saying we all have our own strengths and weaknesses. I'm certain there are aspects where she has a better grasp than I do. I'm comfortable enough in my own skin that I'm aware that I am not the smartest person in my palce of employment. But she's not. It's really important to Purple that she's the most intelligent person there. You do you, boo. 

What's going on here is mental illness rearing its ugly head, readers. So I'm not mad at her by any means. I feel sad by her tragic circumstances. But I also feel that she knows she needs to get help and isn't. And that ends my sympathy. She's suffered mental and physical abuse growing up, and it's finally poking through her defenses and she isn't coping. And I know what I'm seeing because the same thing started to happen to me, but I didn't let it get that bad. I saw what was happening to me and I sought out help. I didn't want what happened to me as a child to control my life as an adult anymore. Purple is letting it control her life. She had stopped drinking almost a year ago, and started again. She's letting her own personal feelings interfere at work, and she's letting the trauma that happened to her control her. I know that it's hard to take that first step toward healing, but when you KNOW that you need help, and your work offers counseling that you refuse to make use of, you no longer deserve my sympathy. It is at this point that you are happy bathing in your misery and pushing all your loved ones away. Because, before this, we were friends. And no we are not. I do not like people who can help themselves, don't, and complain about it. I have no time for people who aren't willing to take care of themselves. Such a terrible mentality.