Going Insane

This is just a rant. So if you don't like people bitching about their lives, then move along. Nothing to see here.

I work with some frustrating people. Now, I am a licensed teacher. I can handle frustrating and, yes, stupid in the form of teenagers. Their brains aren't developed. They are supposed to make mistakes that I think are dumb. I have all the patience in the world when it comes to my students.

Adults are another matter.

The school I work at hired a new lunch lady who also takes over my desk and the phones for half an hour so that I can actually have a lunch break. My lack of one before this is a whole other matter that I could spend days ranting about.

So, this lady is not the brightest crayon in the box. I am supposed to leave her little tasks to accomplish while I am away, but she has proven that doing so will take five times as long and throw me into a panic attack that has me wanting to crawl under my desk and try to whimper while I hyperventilate. I really shouldn't panic, but if anything goes wrong or is done incorrectly, it's my fault. So I panic because I have an unreasonable fear of failure.

The first task that I had for her was to put return address labels and student labels in alphabetical order on a stack of envelopes. She put the return address labels on one batch of envelopes and the addresses on another stack. And they weren't alphabetical.

The next task was to make a copy of a textbook, then turn that copy into a two-sided copy, and finally make a second two-sided copy. End result: two two-sided copies of a textbook. No problem. Now, I was sick the day she started this task, so I did not give her the initial directions. She was able to copy the textbook fairly easily, but things went to hell when she tried to make them two-sided. First she assured me that she knew how to use the copier. Thinking that that meant everything was ok, I went to lunch. I got back to find her physically placing all of the pages of the textbook back to back. She said she wasn't even close to done, and she was confused as to how we would be able to make copies. *face palm* I explained that all she needed to do was stack the papers on the copier, push the 1,1-2 button, and the copier would print the pages back to back. She spent the next hour re-sorting the pages into their original configuration all the while muttering and humming to herself which set my teeth on edge.

Finally we got that straightened out. I showed her how to use the copier. Now, the textbook is about 400 pages long. The whole thing does not come even close to fitting in the feeder tray. It has to be separated into chunks. But it's a fairly simple matter of putting a chunk in, making the two-sided copy, and putting the one-sided in one pile and the two-sided in another pile so that eventually there are two copies of the textbook, one that is one-sided, and one that is two-sided. Should be pretty easy, right? Wrooooooong. Oh so wrong. She screwed up the piles. And she dropped a bunch of pages onto the floor. We have to sort through every page to make sure they are all there and in order.

I dread trying to make a second two-sided copy. I would do it myself, but I actually get yelled at when I do what my boss considers a "simple" task. Seriously. I got yelled at for having some free time and putting stamps on envelopes because that was something that this other lady could do. So was I supposed to just sit there and twiddle my thumbs???

Basically, I really do not have the patience to handle idiocy in adults. Up to a point I can, but I think I am going to give myself a concussion from face palming. Or be bald because I'll tear all my hair out.