Unfortunately, I called it in my previous post when I mentioned junior high lunch table drama. Someone in QA was called into HR last week for allegedly criticizing her manager while sitting at our usual lunch table. QA is not especially a work friend of mine--she doesn't always sit with us, but another work friend just got engaged to QA's husband's bestie, so they see each other socially and sometimes QA sits with us to talk to work friend. Personally, I have never heard QA say anything like this--it's possible, since I'm not there all the time (like when I go out for Mexican like I wanted to today), and she does seem like kind of a negative person in general, so it's not inconceivable. But I never heard/saw the kind of behavior they accused her of.
So when I heard about this last week I was just sort of whatever, didn't care. Fast forward to today, I go to this mysterious meeting with my manager, only to be told that HR wants to see me and we both have to go. So of course then, despite the fact that I couldn't come up with any offenses I might have committed, my paranoia got even worse.
We have a new HR person. I talked to her like once, when I handed in a PTO form. So we sat down, and she mentioned that there have been "accusations" of "name calling and negative speech" from my lunch table, and while whoever reported this said that I've never said anything myself, HR lady is "concerned" for me because she "doesn't feel that it reflects well" on me to spend my lunch with "those kind of people."
Whaaaaa? There is a core group of 4-5 people I eat lunch with regularly, none of whom are this QA chick and all of whom are awesome and funny people. So now basically I'm being told not to eat with those bad people who are, in fact, my favorite work people and who are not bad. And frankly, in a tone of voice that NOLA probably wouldn't use on one of her students, let alone that someone mired in middle management should be subjected to. I mean, I'm not high and mighty, but I'm not some dumb kid who just walked in off the street, either.
So after probably the worst no-poker-face WTF look, I told her that that hasn't been my experience with that group at all, that I haven't witnessed namecalling or "negative speech" and that we intentionally don't talk about work at lunch, it's spouses/kids/other stuff outside of work. Meanwhile, my manager, who hates confrontation, looked like he wanted to leave as badly as I did. So HR then said that she just wanted to bring it to my attention, I said I appreciated it (I didn't), she reiterated that no one accused me of saying anything bad, I said, "Well no, because I haven't." So then she said that if I did overhear anything, she'd appreciate it if I brought it to her attention, and all I could think was "snitches get stitches." Which made me want to giggle. And that would have been about the least appropriate time to giggle, which made me want to giggle even more. And then finally she said thank you, and we said our goodbyes.
I missed Mexican for this! And at this restaurant, all the waiters serenade the birthday boy/girl, and then shove whipped cream in his face. I missed whipped cream in Rob's face! To talk about junior high lunchroom drama bullhsit. And be spoken to like a naughty third grader. I am not happy.
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