There were a few events that happened at work today that have been on my mind a lot this evening. The later of the two has occupied most of my focus so I’ll write about that one tonight.

A little back story: Our department has decided to do a test run of social networks. The hope is that we’ll keep attendees at our seminars and events interested if they’re vested in a social network group or page. Right now, we’re just focusing on Facebook, but the thought is we’ll expand to others like Twitter and Linkedin eventually.

I’m not sure if anyone of you have ever set-up a Facebook business page, but it’s a bit of a hassle. Especially if you want to have a custom URL like facebook.com/businessname. To do that, you need to have a personal profile tied to the page and you need twenty-five fans before Facebook will allow for a vanity URL. I don’t have a Facebook profile and Larry didn’t want his name to show up as the admin, so we don’t have a profile tied to the page. We’re hoping that we’ll be able to get the vanity URL with just the twenty-five fans.

In an attempt to get fans, Larry asked some of the people in our department to “Like” the page. One of those people was Vortex, who I no longer feel like using that pseudonym for. I think going forward, I will refer to her as WP. WP was more than willing to join the page and a thumbnail of her profile picture became visible on our business page.

When I saw her name pop up, I clicked on the picture and got to her “limited profile” view. The picture was shown in its full size and it was an interesting pose. WP looked like she was trying to be seductive. I had a giggle at the photo as I’d never seen that side of WP. I showed the picture to Natalie (Larry and I are the only ones who have access to Facebook) who then called over her boss who then called over her boss. The last woman in the sequence is a total fucking bitch. Actually, bitch is too kind of a word for her, she’s a total C U Next Tuesday.

She’s a total snob, she never says good morning to anyone who isn’t a manager or higher, she never opens or holds a door for anyone and she talks to people like they are an idiot if they dare interrupt her to ask a question. Natalie and I call this woman HRH which is short for Her Royal Highness because she acts like a Queen who can’t be bothered with her subjects.

HRH is at the same level as Larry. Yesterday, Larry told me that at a meeting of their group, the Facebook page came up. HRH immediately began to mock WP’s picture and WP herself. Larry was baffled by HRH’s comments since he’d seen the picture and hadn’t thought anything of it. Apparently, the other senior managers in the room began to laugh and said they would check out the page – and WP’s profile – as soon as they could log on.

When he told me about this yesterday, I began to feel like a real asshole. If it weren’t for me, HRH likely would never have seen WP’s picture. When I last logged onto our Facebook page, I noticed that Speakerphone Asshole had also become a fan. This of course was so that he could laugh at WP’s photo.

That really pissed me off. Natalie and I refer to Speakerphone Asshole as Cowardly Lion because he reminds us of the lion in The Wizard of Oz movie. He’s the most spineless, useless manager (and person) I’ve ever known. His mini-department is in shambles, but he refuses to deal with it because he knows he’s going to retire soon. Whenever things get close to blowing up, he runs to John snivelling like a little bitch hoping he’ll be able to fix things.

I hated the idea that fuckers like HRH and Speakerphone Asshole were laughing at WP’s expense. She did us a favour by joining our page, especially since no one else did – or has yet to.

I talked to Natalie about it this morning and she offered to talk to WP as they’re a bit close. I said that I would do it, as it was my actions that set this whole fiasco in motion.

Just before lunch, I went into WP’s office and closed the door behind me. I didn’t tell her that people were laughing at her photo, but I said that at a recent meeting of the senior managers, it was brought up that some people thought her picture was inappropriate. “What?” she asked, obviously confused. She shook her head and asked who had said things.

“It doesn’t matter who,” I replied. “But, I think you should remove yourself from the page since people have such a problem with the photo.”

She put her head in her hands and then looked up at me, clearly pissed. It didn’t take her long to figure out that it was HRH who made the comments. I offered to let her use my computer to sign on to leave the page so that she wouldn’t have to wait until she got home to do so.

By then, it was time for lunch and there was a BBQ we were all invited too so WP, Natalie, Charlie, Katie and I all made our way to get some grub. “Did you tell me because someone else was going to talk to me about it?” WP asked.

“No, I told you because I thought you should know,” I replied. “If it were me, I’d want to know.”

She nodded and we were soon joined by some other colleagues.

I spent the rest of the afternoon seething every time I saw HRH and Speakerphone Asshole. They have to be the most vapid people, yet they think they have the right to mock others. HRH is a bitter divorced woman with the personality of a doorknob and SA needs to come out of the closet and embrace his limp wristed self.

WP and I aren’t by any means best friends, but the fact that we’re not working as closely anymore means I get her in much smaller doses these days. I’m also trying to keep an open mind about her. With all of the Princesses and fashionistas in our department, I try to find those people I can actually carry a conversation with.

WP was very quiet the rest of the day; which is unusual for her. Larry hadn’t yet noticed the loss in the number of fans our page had but when he does, I’ll be honest with him. I’ll tell him I didn’t think it right that WP was being mocked by his colleagues when she was doing us a favour.

I felt like I was back in high school with all of this bullshit going on. These are people who are in their forties and fifties. Lead by their fine example, I can only imagine how their children turned out.

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