Kill Them With Kindness

Why is it that some people can make our lives so much harder than they need to be? Is it a test of my patience or just an awfully horrible personality trait?


There's a particular woman I work with, not closely, but we do work together on some things occasionally. She's not in Saskatchewan, so most dealings are via telephone or e-mail. When I first started my job, I learned quickly just how to work with her so that we could maintain the peace and get along. It appears that lately, however, for whatever reason, she's been a little stressed. I can understand, it's just been a little more difficult lately for me to be patient.


Currently we're trying to work through a specific technical situation that impacts my payroll (not my payroll but the one I process, rather). There are deadlines and the issue will simply not be fixed in time. I need her to approve something and there's an easy workaround, but she was making it so difficult to understand that. Even today, after I spoke with a fellow coworker about the issue in regards to the timeline for it to be rectified, she made it like we weren't doing our jobs. I sent an email to discuss what needed to be done, and reassured her that it would still be worked on but in the meantime, I would have to send her something for the temporary solution. She called me up and not only had a problem with it not being fixed, but she didn't like that I'd included her admin in the email and couldn't send her the link "just-so" (in my defense, the admin had been copied in her email to me). 


I really feel like I've been the utmost courteous and professional with her, even apologizing for the situation and that I'd included Ms. Admin in the email. I jump over hurdles for her, but only because she basically makes me feel like I have to. I don't dislike her on a personal level nor do I dislike working with her; I'm just frustrated that she's been taking out her stress on me. I have to ensure that employees are paid accurately and timely, and she sure is making it difficult for me to do so.


It would have been so easy to make it like it was all her fault and be totally honest with her, but I can't do that, so I just keep smiling and saying nice things and apologizing, even when it's not my fault. She's one of those people you have to "kill with kindness", as my ex-manager would say. So be it.


Pi today = 3.14159265358979323