Nightmare at Work #2 in My New Life

I’m actually exceptionally happy in both of my jobs and classes. I am writing about the very minuscule negative portions of my life in this entry and a few prior. I love my job and what I do, but the urge to write about these annoying individuals is, I believe, is a symptom of their overall disposition: They demand attention and respect. I am generally respectful of most folks in my work lives and just about to anyone I encounter along my journey. These two, and for today, this one individual demands more respect than anyone of the 50 people I encounter on an average work day. For my own personal mental health (and this entry is about my work at a Mental Institution) I try not to dwell on any negativity that I don’t have to. She, however, on the unfortunate shifts I must work with her, feels the need to jam herself into my psyche in an extremely rude and uncomfortable manor like a zombie sucking the windshield of my car. I’ve identified her as a High-Conflict person and I’ve taken proper procedures and precautions from a book by Bill Eddy: Five Types of People Who Can Ruin Your Life. Keep them at arms length, not too close, give them respect and so on and so forth. I affirm the stance that I am a quiet person, which is true (though I am charismatic in my closer circles). She can talk nonsense for hours on end 8 hours in a row so much to give you a headache and literally make you forget about all the shit you have to do as a responsible adult the following day. However, I do like my other coworkers and there is a certain patient actually really enjoy the company of. He actually reminds me of my little brother (when we were kids and close friends) and makes me laugh really hard with a very interesting meta-humour. He will say exceptionally rational things to my sometimes non-rational questions or inquiries. Just like those goofy things in life that adults accept in order to get along but kids are like “That doesn’t make any sense,” and you really can’t argue with them because it really doesn’t make any sense.

Anyway, I enjoy my time working with him. He just stands there completely content on the other side of the glass while I’m doing homework and he’ll ask me questions about my science homework and actually make me laugh which is a really nice break from cramming for a test. So, problem co-worker will actually noticeably become jealous of my attention to the patient and my lack of attention I give her. I’ve heard of this before. The story goes that my grandmother used to get jealous of the closeness between my grandfather and his brother, my great uncle. They were best friends like that.

I have to ignore her, because, I believe her to be a DSM-5 personality type. They are better than you and they slap you down when you feel good about yourself, but you can’t leave them because they need you, and obviously she and what she has going on the best thing around, but you can’t opt out. There really is no winning with this type, so just don’t play. It’s called Grey Rocking. Don’t draw any attention to yourself.

There is a sexual connotation to DSM-5. The conflict is a sexual experience for them. The drama, screaming at patients is a trigger for male protective instincts. She forces herself into a Damsel In Destress role if you allow her. She can noticeably become turned-on with the screeching and torment she pretends to be going through, when in reality, the patients she targets show no harmful, or assaultive characteristics. Like my favourite patient S_. I’ve seen the staff actually badger him and he’ll just come back with verbal hilarity. Like some of the best come backs I’ve ever heard. And that pisses the staff off even worse because he’s intelligent when he is on his game.

Some staff do get noticeably jealous of the patients because obviously our psychiatrists treat patients like their children, and the staff feel like bastard children.

Anyway, on the shifts I work with her, the feeling I get when I ignore her is like shaming. Like a husband who didn’t please her in bed and didn’t hit that spot. (Which is okay in my book because she makes me want to throw-up in my mouth.)

Last updated September 19, 2023