Stress

I think Stress is the word. We went out for a drink after I wrote that post last night and had a lovely time. I returned in a much better mood and today's been basically OK. Except... I sent a pissy one line memo in reply to a colleague who was bugging me (actually: just aasking me) about whether as story she wanted written had been finished. As if she was my boss. Now that really gets me going. And in the Netherlands, you know, we have a different attitude to bosses and their team members. Basically, a boss here can't tell you anything. All he or she can do is sort of negotiate until everyone agrees with the course of action. Does anything ever get done, I hear you ask? It's a good question. The answer is 'yes' - but only when we all agree, of course. But these colleagues in London - just colleagues, no line of authority over ME - simply don't realise, or don't want to realise, that there's any difference between NL and the UK. For them, it's still the old situation that the boss says 'jump' and you all jump. But not here, me duckies, it's DIFFERENT.

Anyway, so I fended her off with a sizzling one-liner and she batted it back at me, just missing the net, with a 100-mile an hour corker that landed in the inboxes two steps up the ladder. I returned that one as well, by now well stuck into the fight and knowing full well that I was shooting myself in the foot in more ways than one. The punishment was immediate - I couldn't get the story finished in time (I'd stayed late to do it) and ended up leaving the office at half past eight. By that time the altercation had escalated to a full-blown Issue and I was banned from sending my story to the man I'd interviewed, having to pass it first for screening via London. This defeated the whole point of staying late - which had been to get the article to him tonight. Why did one little e-mail spark off such a mess? Because I feel she's trying to profile herself - at my expense, that's why.

But underneath all that, it was quite simply a clash between two stressed employees. Tomorrow, we get to hear where we'll be sitting in the new organisation as the international bakery enters its umpteenth reorganisation. That's what it's all about: STRESS