Finally had cataract surgery last week. Just in time because the damn thing was starting to drive me nuts. By morning the day after surgery, clear vision in the eye was recovering at an amazing pace. A quick post-op examination and I was declared legally able to drive again. So I went to buy winter supplies before making the long drive back home.
At the store I ran into someone I had been forced to supervise in the final year working as an employee. She had a sneaky habit of reading novels and playing sudoku on the job when she should have at least been working on her assigned tasks, never mind innovating beyond limits of the assignment as I hoped she would. But she consistently demonstrated that she was worthless at any task assignment. I tried to fire her but HR informed me firing a State employee was not easy to do, or advisable. WTF? I had proof she was insubordinate and totally worthless as any kind of resource on the team, but HR was adamant. I could not fire her.
Good grief.
So after not seeing the worthless woman for twelve years, there she was in the store wanting to have a conversation, and I set into her right away.
"So, are you still reading novels and playing games on the job?"I asked her, point blank.
She just laughed her stupid laugh.
"I saw how the BPMS project you were involved in failed. It was hilarious watching it happen," I said loudly and clearly so the moron would not misunderstand intent of my statement. My voice was actually echoing around in the big warehouse of a store. We were in the meat department but I was sure people in the farthest reaches of the store could hear me. "Spending three hundred thousand dollars on licenses you couldn't even use and never have used since," I added with no small amount of glee.
She just laughed stupidly some more, but louder this time. It may have finally dawned on her I was insulting her in a public place. Other shoppers started taking notice, slowing or pausing to watch. So I needled her some more. Her only response was more stupid laughter. So I dropped it and moved on. She wished me a Merry Christmas as I walked away. I kept walking, shaking my head at the pathetic creature I had once been forced to supervise by my supervisor who had long ago grown weary of trying to do it.
Someone in the surrounding crowd uttered a short but very audible chuckle and I grinned, realizing my vision had cleared considerably from more than just the new lens inserted into my eye the previous day.
