The staples that bind us

The past week was extremely stressful, work wise. We had an auditor coming over (education administration in Australia is fraught with tedious legislations, especially concerning overseas students) and everyone at the office was panicking over bits and pieces left undone. We had inherited quite a few knots from the past and had our fingers bleeding raw from untangling them. Okay, I'm not very good at analogies, but you get the idea.

The person held to be responsible for this knot-untangling business was me. And it was pretty unfortunate but the auditor still concluded we had a bit of work to do. I was furious because along the way, I had been misinformed of the scope of my responsibilities and had a lot of information vital to decision making withheld from me. Couple that with a sniffly nose, sore throat and mild fever. And PMS.

I was definitely not having a good day.

Bitter, I expressed to my direct superior that he might want to start writing a reference for me.

Yet amazingly enough, no one blamed me. It was obviously not my fault yet corporate life is full of finger pointing, a round robin of scapegoats, so this was somewhat a miracle. It was pretty awesome to have a stream of colleagues calling and coming in to my room to express that I was doing fine and that whatever work I had contributed, while may not have been sufficient for the auditor, was still much appreciated.

As we all hail from different parts of the world, the office is a minefield for cultural and personality clashes. While I myself am generally non confrontational, I have on occasion, lost my temper and instead relied on other colleagues to pass on messages. Our feisty Colombian accountant was one of such people, as she had been, on a number of times, rude and scornful.

Anazingly enough, this week we began to talk and she now comes in the confer with me on things beyond my field. There was no apology for her past behavious but she did express that Latinas were extroverted and tended to get hot headed quickly. I suppose that was as close to a sorry I would get from her.

I'll really miss these people.