Hi, my name is Lizzle... Please yell at me!

Every once in a while I feel the need to look down and check my name badge from the office and make sure that it still says my name, my title, and where I work rather than, "Hi, my name is Lizzle... Please yell at me!"

One of my clients has something of a reputation around my office. I am not the only case manger she has worked with. She had met with one of our therapists, she has met with SEVERAL case managers, and a couple of lower level people, and well... the general consensus among those of us who have had the privilege of meeting with her? Bitch is CRAZY.

I believe some of the other adjectives that I've heard used with regard to her are, "evil, hateful, fucking nuts, wretched, unhinged, and 'Oh don't even get me started on that bitch!'"

I have the dubious pleasure of dealing with her on a pretty regular basis... I see her something like 4 days out of every 5 day work week. I have frequently mentioned the ongoing issues with her to my supervisor. This week I brought it up again, but with the added bonus of "What are my chances of getting this transferred to someone else?" My supervisor gave me a light chuckle. She said, "Do you think this is a genuine personality conflict, or do you just not like her?"

"Both." I responded.

I don't think that the case will be transferred to someone else, because fortunately it looks like we will be closing it soon. (It'll still be a few weeks, but still, in this business where we have had to keep cases open for YEARS and YEARS, a few weeks is the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.) But after tonight's events my case against maintaining my presence on the case just got a little stronger. She seems to think that I "got shitty with her" in a note that simply asked her to call me when she got the note, and she also seems to think that I am constantly disrespectful.

I had a good laugh at that!

The funny thing is that if I treated her half as bad as she treats me on a regular basis she'd know what disrespect was... (Unfortunately there are rules that prevent me from cursing at her and calling her all the assorted names I have for her... I mean I guess I could call her all those names, because really, when it's her word against mine, who is going to believe her?) But I keep my mouth shut in the interest of avoiding additional problems with her, and (secondarily,) keeping my job.

I mean, you'd think that when dealing with someone who you know documents all contact with you and provides services for you so that you can get your kids back, you're going to be nice to the point of being obsequious. You'd think wrong, but don't feel bad, you only think that way because you are normal. These people are NOT normal. As we've noted before, these people are the bottom 1% of the barrel.

I think it's important to note that while I don't judge them for being in the bottom 1% of the barrel, the fact is that I'm there to help them out, and quite frequently I get yelled at for it. In point of fact, I should point out that I find it REALLY interesting to keep track of all the myriad of ways in which I am responsible for their problems. Because clearly it is my fault that they were out on a coke binge for 6 months and didn't care enough to make sure that their 5 kids from 5 different dads weren't getting molested by the neighbors, or (shockingly) even occasionally made an appearance at a public institution of learning. Yeah, that's obviously my fault.

I don't know where I was going with any of this, I just thought you all might like to know what I'm dealing with in addition to moving and trying to locate my damn shower curtain in one of those boxes in my living room.

I feel better now.