I had a coworker deliberately try to screw me yesterday and I must say I'm discombobulated by the fact. As by my previous post, it's been, to say the least, a stressful week. The department I work in is the only one that has coverage from 8:00 am to 8:00 pm. There are 8 of us and each week we work a different shift to make sure all those hours are covered. This past week I was working 9 to 5. But the person who was working the 12 to 8 shift had the day off and I was asked if I would cover the 12 to 8 shift and while I didn't really want to, I said I would.

The different shifts run from
(1) 8 to 4 - 4 people
(2) 8:30 to 4:30 - 1 person
(3) 9 to 5 - 1 person
(4) 10 to 6 - 1 person
(5) 12 to 8 - 1 person

The 8 of us have discovered and discussed the fact, that especially on a Friday night, there is simply too much work for one person during the final 2 hours so the 10 to 6 person has voluntarily shifted to the 12 to 8 shift to help with the very heavy workload. I was the first one to do this as it just happened to work out with a lot of shifting around of shifts, that I was the 10 to 6 person on Friday night for 3 weeks in a row and knowing what it's like, I switched to help the 12 to 6 person. Since then every week the 10 to 6 person has done the same - it's a great group I work with. We've run this by our supervisor and she has been very impressed with our 'team playing'

But - yesterday the coworker who had already said she would stay and work along with me on the 12 to 8 shift showed up at 8 and worked the 8 to 4 shift. I didn't really realize this when I showed up at 12, but as time went on, I realized that she had done this deliberately as she was angry with me for something that happened earlier in the week. She is young, very young, and was picked as one of the people to learn the new system in advance and help the rest of us when it went into operation. Because she is young, with a younger brain, and a lack of life experience, she is getting very annoyed and very short with the rest of us when we need help and it's beginning to cause some very hard feelings amongst us. I tried to explain to her that she had to try and put herself in our shoes - we will get this new system - but at the moment she needs to have patience and understand that it's completely 180 degree turn in the way we have done things for years and that unlike most times when you are learning a new job, there are others you can ask for help. In this case ALL of us are new to it and as a result frustrated and tired. In addition, because it's in the health field, there are clients who are in crisis who aren't always getting the same level of care they were the week before and I think that is what is causing the most stress. All of us are people people and we don't want anyone missed because of our new learning curve.

The coworker in question however, didn't take my attempt at advise in the way I tried to offer it and became very angry and hasn't spoken to me since. Now that in itself doesn't bother me. But when she showed up at 8 yesterday morning, without running it by her supervisor and just declaring (from what I picked up by what I was told by my other coworkers) and just said she didn't feel like working 12 to 8, well - I got angry. Because it was a deliberate act to screw me - leaving me by myself for 2 hours, with a brand new system that just started this week, on the busiest night of the week when there are extra case managers working so double the work load for that person (me).

I'm still trying to wrap my head around the fact that someone would be that vindictive. Thankfully, because it is a wonderful group of people I work with, another person said she would stay and work with me. And a good thing it was as again, it was extremely busy last night and if I'd been on my own, I honestly don't think I could have made it through.

As I said - I'm staggered that a coworker would pull this kind of thing and I'm not sure how I will work with her going forward.

And the real kicker is this person who is scheduled to be the 12 to 8 person next week, earlier before this all happened, asked if I could take her shift for two nights as she had something else she had to do in the evening and I quite cheerfully said I would. Now - do I have a 'sudden' change of plans and tell her I can't do it after all? I don't work that way. But after what she pulled, it makes me almost ill to do it for her.