adding it up

Let me first start this post out by saying that overall work has improved... dramatically.  However... sometimes ...

It took me a while but I finally figured out what happened today.  Where to start?

This afternoon I received an email from one of the supervisors.  It was a general email that went to the entire office.  But somehow I knew it was for me.  It was a reminder that the teams have operating agreements and we need to remember to follow them.  And that one of the agreements is that we all agreed to not use our cell phones during team meetings.

So instead of stewing about it I trotted to the other side of the office and had a conversation with the supervisor.  I pointed out a few things.
    1.  The operating agreements were done before I was hired.
    2.  I have never read the operating agreements -- mostly because nobody shared them with me.
    3.  I do use my cell phone during the meetings.  I do not make calls.  I do not check emails.  I do not text.  I use the phone in the meetings to take notes.  I listen to the cases and make reminders to myself of things that I need to do in regards to those cases.
So I apologized.  I was given the option of using pen and paper to take notes or asking permission from the teams to use my phone.  I haven't yet decided which I will do.

But then I began to wonder.  Why?  Why, after 4 months, was this being brought up?  Through a supervisor?

And then I remembered an earlier conversation.

We were eating lunch (staff lunch that everybody was required to attend) and some of the people began discussing a case.  J (client) has been living in a transitional house (3 days) that is run by my friend, B.  J got kicked out.  J told the staff that she was kicked out by B because of renovations to the house and that she will be able to return once the renovations are done.  I know this is not true.  Because B has been talking to me about it - a lot.  I don't talk back, but I listen to her.  But the staff decided that B is being unethical by telling J that.  So I spoke up and said B absolutely never said that.  And since J has been lying to us about EVERYTHING since day one (she told us this was her first baby -- neglecting to mention to us that she had 4 other children she has lost custody of).  But the staff are opting to believe J.  And I backed up B. 

And then I got thrown under the bus.

When will the realize that I am getting use to being the outsider?  Pushing me into a corner in order to get me to behave?  Yeah, that really isn't going to work.

Mean Mama