God, I hope I was never that bad.

Next week will be my last week on the current temp job, and I have to admit I won't be entirely sorry when it's over. It'll certainly be the end of an era...or something.

Like most change, it's bittersweet.

On one hand, I really love this job. The legal stuff is interesting, and we're helping people. Granted, I'm not doing a lot myself...just passing on information that 90% of them are glad to receive. They are so grateful, and so gracious, and so kind. My reward is hearing the relief, gratitude and hope in a someone's voice when I say "I have someone who may be able to help you."

Plus, I get to talk to people from all over Oklahoma--both attorneys and civilians. I love the genuine friendliness that feels like home, and I'm delighted by the varying dialects. I love when an attorney takes time to tell me about his little corner of the world, how to pronounce the name of some little town I've never heard of, and what of note (if anything) goes on there. Truth be told, I'm enchanted.

But then there's the work environment...a loony fucking annoying co-worker and management that SUCKS like I didn't think possible. I'm not trying to be dramatic, but I have been repeatedly horrified by some of the things I've learned too late and have been doing wrong all along. And I'm not just talking about minor procedural details (although those are also a problem); I'm talking major things too.

Of course, the boss never takes any responsibility. She just blames my coworkers, who I have to admit have been pretty lousy about following rules and sharing information with me. To an extent she's right to blame them, but at the end of the day they're just a product of her lousy management.

I've been working there about two months, and if I were to add up all the time she's spent talking to me about my job (including the interview!) it probably wouldn't amount to 30 minutes. Which wouldn't be so bad if she had someone competent to train me and answer my questions. Alas, no. The majority of her communication with us consists of a couple of gruff sentences (commands, corrections, etc.) in the subject field of an email. Sometimes, if she's feeling especially generous, she'll include some passive-aggressive comments in the body of the email about how she knows she's told us this before and it better not happen again.

I don't care if it's directed at me or not...it's disheartening and frustrating. There's never any useful follow up or further explanation of how to do things correctly. The woman is straight up bat shit crazy.

Not everyone there is an ogre, of course. There are some super nice people outside my group that I'd love to know better, and I am sorry I'll miss out on working with them more. But I'm not sure putting up with the craziness would be worth it.

I'm ready for it to be over so I can move on.