Workin' the Late Shift

When I was first interviewing for my job, they told me I'd be working from 10-7 for the foreseeable future, and I thought that rocked. I'm not exactly a morning person by trade, and this would give me the chance to stay up late, and as a natural result of that, sleep in.

It hasn't exactly worked that way, but it's still good. I go to the gym before work, which entails getting up around 6:30 am, but at least I know it's done and I get home before 9pm each night. Also, while I'm actually at work, things slow down after 5:30 or so, so I can use that time to either catch up on back work or do nothing. Plus, the boss leaves at 5pm, so not having him there (as much as I like him) for a solid 1/4 of my work day isn't bad either.

Before Friday, I thought the only kinda sucky thing about the late shift was during the summer when I knew all sorts of other people, including my friends, were enjoying beverages and being done with their work weeks at 5:02 pm Friday while I had another solid 2 hours of time left to go. Friday, that all changed.

If you're not a regular reader of this blog, before you go any further I'd like to direct you here. Read up a little on this guy at work Dwight, because he is a key player in the story I am about to tell. I was walking downstairs to check out the end of Employee Appreciation Week! (no good stories came from Employee Appreciation Week!, sorry) free ice cream setup my company had thrown together when one of my co-workers said, "Did you hear about the fiasco this morning?"

Well no, I had heard of no such fiasco, what might you be talking about? "You didn't hear about Dwight throwing a cup of coffee on Rachel*?"

W
T
F

NO, I did not hear about that. Tell me, NOW.

Quick note about Rachel, she occasionally acts like she's the sh*t at work, when she's really not. And it does on occasion get annoying. So apparently on this morning a group of people were gathered talking about whatever, and Rachel was kinda making fun of Dwight (she likes to bust balls) but also tapping his shoulder with a ruler (Rachel is just shy of 6', Dwight's a solid 5'7). At first, everyone was laughing, including Dwight. Then, as I was told, he out of nowhere got a serious look on his face, and tossed a half cup of coffee all over her dress (about belt level and below).

When I heard this, three questions immediately came to mind:

How did I miss this?
How is Dwight still alive? and perhaps most interestingly
Why is he still here acting like nothing happened?

The first one is a simple answer, so let's go to 2 and 3. I was told at first everyone was just silent, and pretty much in shock. Who does this? Seriously, at just a basic human decency level, who throws hot coffee at someone else? And how did the person who had the coffee thrown on them not go into a murderous rage immediately thereafter (as I almost certainly would have)?

After the initial shock wore off, apparently Rachel relatively quietly, and showing much more restraint than most people would, just told the guy he needed to walk away. Now here's where it gets even better. He didn't just snap out of it and apologize. He didn't walk away. He kept talking, telling her she couldn't treat people that way. If this guy wasn't a possible sociopath that might show up one day with an axe to grind, I might almost be impressed by this. It wasn't until another co-worker literally pulled the guy away that he got out of her face.

Now the bigger question, what was he doing there all day. Apparently there was talking of bringing the whole thing to HR, but some people suggested they could both get in trouble based on her not vicious making fun of him and the goofy tapping on the shoulder with the ruler. The final decision appears to have been that the dude is a giant psycho/asshole but it wasn't worth getting into a huge HR mess that might lead to both parties getting in trouble.

So everyone goes back to work like nothing happened. This one isn't over yet though, at least I don't think it is. Her personality/ego is too big and he's just a little too nuts for there not to be a round 2. But next time, if the two combatants could wait until after 10am to start things off, I for one would really appreciate it.

*Names again changed to protect the innocent, and me.

Listening To: John Butler Trio
About To: hopefully watch the Yankees finish of sweeping the Mets