Told You So

Twit is pregnant. Today at work, not only was she wearing some maternity shirt of extreme ugliness, but she was yapping about it to a coworker down the hall. I tried my best to ignore all of this. The line that did stand out was, "Girl, you're carrying high, you have a boy baby in you." Yes, I work with these people.

Later, I totally had to call Twit out on her eavesdropping and nosiness. I was on the phone with one of my managers, and was extending sympathies due to a death in his family. We talk about some business, and he tells me this crazy story of a dick cop (no surprise there, really) who thought he was drunk because his eyes were red from crying. Anyway, I get off the phone with the normal wrap-up of condolensces, and I hang up the phone, and not one second after my hand leaving the receiver she asks, "What's up with XX?" I kind of sing-song at her that it was a personal matter (sing-songing is the best way I can control my seething anger). She actually started to rebut me and say some shit about how if it is a death WE should know--I honestly cannot even tell you what the point was she struggled to tell me because I talked right over her. I curtly and with what I thought was finality said that it was a private matter and that without his express permission to divulge his personal matters, that I will not discuss it.

About a half-hour later, she sends a snarky email advising to not worry, that she doesn't need my help since she found the information she needed on XX. Can you believe that shit? Totally eavesdrops on my conversation then calls around to find out who died in an employee's family. Then emailing me that she found out. That is one fucked-up person. That was the very last fucking straw for me. I wrote back, copied my boss, and put the complete smack-down on her ass. I told her I never planned to help her find out the personal matter of an employee. That I will never divulge any employee's personal business. That private matters are not fodder for workplace discussions. That I will only give out details if an employee explicitly asked me to share with his/her coworkers. Outside of that, if an employee wants to discuss the private affairs with her directly that is fine, but it won't be through me. That I stand behind this not just as a personal view but from an HR standpoint. That this philosophy also extended to medical issues of any employee and his/her family.

Stupid fucking bitch. I can't believe that she cannot understand privacy. Actually I can understand, because she is an attention-grabbing whore. She wants everyone to know her business, so it only goes to follow that everyone should want her to know theirs. I am not going to get involved in that, and if anyone wants her to know something, they can go tell her themselves. She sat there all smug because she figured out who died in this man's family. That is so disgusting. Absolutely horrible.

I know a lot of coworkers don't mind their private business being discussed, but I must stand behind the HR principles that employees' private lives need to remain private unless they consent for it to be disclosed. I would want the same for myself. I would hate that every time I had to call in sick or for an emergency that I would have to clarify that it was a personal matter, and not to discuss it with my coworkers. What business need do people have to know I'm sick, or a relative died?

GAHD!