Thanks for asking. Pretty shitty.

I work in a small office. Someone quit two weeks ago and I took on a lot of her residual work. This Wednesday, two people got fired. Yesterday was chaos. Apparently, most of the office assumes I will be also taking on the work of one of the fired people, although she never trained me to do it (she was asked to, multiple times). Plus, the Office Drama Mama cornered me after work and tried to manipulate me into a) thinking my managers are incompetent (she can take personal gain from this) and b) feeling sorry for her because no one understands her. Also somehow managed to throw in that she's above helping the rest of us through crisis because she's paid more.

Today, I went in, frustrated as hell, and immediately met with my manager to state my boundaries: I needed clarity and reasonable expectations from everyone if I was truly to be self-learning the work they maybe wanted me to take on (again, no one ever stated in certainty that I was taking on anything in particular-- even he didn't have a clear answer at the time). Throughout the day, I tried to focus on keeping my head down and doing the work in front of me before worrying about what other people thought or what was to come. I specifically did not talk to people, listened to my own music, and stayed in my own zone because I knew I couldn't handle the cacophony of opinions about my work anymore.

First, my coworker got bitchy with me for being asked to help with one of the fired people's tasks, saying I should be learning it, and she would only be helping once. So that already put me in a great mood, on top of seeing an inundation of work I have little idea how to do, piling on top of the work I just took on two weeks ago, which is piling on top of my existing work. Fun, fun, fun.

Then, around 3:30, the Office Drama Mama, who thinks she's in a position of supervision, but is not my direct manager, bustled herself into my cubicle and argued with me about the work she thought I should be doing, and was astonished to learn that I could see the fired person's task queue but wasn't working from it. I told her, once again, that no one had communicated clear expectations for my work and what I should or should not be taking on from the fired person, particularly considering I have no training and my regular work to accomplish. She continued to bully me about my work and ultimately told me I "shouldn't have to be told" to start helping out with the fired person's work, and was not taking my responses at all. None of my other coworkers are being held to this expectation and to my knowledge, she did not scrutinize any of them. To boot, I'm the youngest in the office and have the least experience of anyone. The lack of fairness is astronomical.

I have never, in two years, cried at work. I've come close, but always managed to hold it together. Today, I could not. I stepped out, clearly upset (ultimately had a panic attack no one else saw). This woman ran and tattled on me to my direct manager. Although I was not planning to speak with him, but was hoping to just take my moment and return to work, he found me in the hall and asked me to discuss the problem with him and another manager. By the time I was done, I still had to go back and finish shit up until 6:15pm. My typical end time is 4:30.

The amount of shame, hatred, pain, and frustration I feel is insane. My husband, who I'd texted during my breakdown, was left concerned that I'd gone off the deep end when he couldn't reach me way past my normal end time. I have been fed pizza and 2 gin & tonics. I am fine, but I fucking hate my life. The current resolution is to have me move cubicles away from this woman. My husband also suggested training myself so I can take her job out from under her...and that sounds way more fun.

Sorry for the novel. I'm literally a novelist in my spare time.