Whatever happened to common sense?
For the past day, I've been trying to understand how someone who has no grasp of what's going on around her manages to have a higher position than some other people. Hey, let's take my manager for instance, since she seems to know everything about everything.
I get an e-mail from her telling myself and my co-worker Sam that we have to coordinate a way to do check requests so that they can get approved. Well, Sam sends me an e-mail (with Jillianne, my manager CC'ed on it) saying that she's going to create a spreadsheet and keep it in our shared folder, so that way everyone has access to it and Jillianne can just pop it open from her computer any time that she needs to verify a check request. I say that's great, and that should be the end of it, right? Well, I get a reply back (she replied to all) from Jillianne asking where we are planning on keeping this spreadsheet. I promptly reply to all and say that Sam mentioned we will keep it in the shared folder so we all have access to it. I get a reply back from Jillianne saying "Well, I created a spreadsheet and put it in the shared folder so we all can see it. That is what I meant by that question." It didn't make any sense. Did she want credit for doing what someone else just did?
Anyhow, later on in the day, Brandon tells me he's eating lunch in the break room when Jillianne walks in. I guess he had CNN or something and they were talking about politics and the elections coming up later this year, and Jillianne says, "I don't even know who's running for president this year, I haven't really been keeping track." Brandon explains to her that this is not a presidential election year. She replies back with, "Oh that's right, it's not 2007 yet." There really is no response to that.
Everytime I see the Simpsons episode where Homer has to create a float for the Springfield U and the Springfield A&M game, it reminds me of my manager. When Homer runs the kicker for Springfield U over, the kicker is in the locker room with Dr. Hibbert, Homer, and Bart, and Dr. Hibbert says, "Well, at least you have your major in... (flips through papers) COMMUNICATIONS!?!" The kicker than blurts out, "I know! Is phony major!" Jillianne has a major in communications and it's the very last thing that she knows how to do. She gives horrible direction, and then when you ask her if something you did is adequate, she will just brush you off. It's really frustrating. She says she sticks up for her entire team, but all she really does is try to help herself out. It's quite frustrating.