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PHOTO POST OMG

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No icons this week, but lots of dragons and one meat grinder ( Behind the cut! )

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I made someone cry at work today. I didn't mean to do it; I was actually offering to help, but apparently I broke the dam.

Someone outside our department pulled some bullshit, demanding something of my podmate that was not strictly speaking department policy. My boss told my podmate "Okay, just do what they ask, but email them and tell them they can't do it again, and be firm." My podmate protested that it was difficult, and she just "wasn't that way!" She has, notably, had a dreadfully hard time asserting herself, which I 100% understand.

So her direct supervisor came over and said well, okay, but you really need practice at tactfully telling people what you can and can't do. I thought they were joking around about it as they talked, about how she doesn't feel it's her place even though she knows she can. So I turned around and said, "You know, if you want, you can write a draft and send it to me and I'll go over it" because I am well known as a tactful asskicker, and also I've made something of a study of the inherent negative bias that exists in digital communication (it's true, google it).

I don't think it's what I said so much as the fact that three people were talking to her about it, and clearly she has some other stresses in her life right now, because she just started to cry. And her supervisor looked at me, and then our boss looked at us, and it was all the uncomfortable.

I'm not actually very good at being good when people are crying, but she's a little younger than me and kind of in the same headspace I get sometimes, so the urge to go over and...I don't know, mentor or something was pretty strong. But having just made her cry I figured that might not be wise, so I just went back to my work and left her to it. Which I hope was the right thing to do; some people like to be left alone and she seems like the type.

Still. AWKWARD.

I never made anyone cry at work before, and it's like the worst Unlock Achievement ever.

The best thing about the Reasons I Love My Job tag is that it can be used both in earnest and ironically.