“Becca, could you check please that list over there and tell me who’s the settlement contact for the Seventh Federal District Court? “
“For which state? ” Becca snaps, annoyed at. ..well, annoyed at pretty much anything Jane ever says, Jane has noticed.
“Indiana,” Jane answers patiently, “in the Seventh.”
“You need to check your basics first, sweetheart. Indiana’s not in the Sev — oh. “
Jane mostly succeeds at keeping her voice neutral as she repeats, “Could you give me the contact name, please?”
This is a vignette from The Life and Times of Jane Doe. It is part of the Six Sentence Stories weekly flash fiction blog hop. This week’s cue was “stick.”
Fun flashes from other writers can be found here.
99 Monkeys 
I’m thinking this isn’t a story but a telling of a tale that happened. Nicely done.
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Sort of, yes. It’s an interesting and illuminating exercise.
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Ugh! I have been in work situations like that, with coworkers that make everything twice as hard due to their attitude! My theory is that we spend most of our waking lives at the office, so why not make an effort to get along? You don’t have to adore each other, just be courteous, kind and helpful. It seems that some folks don’t quite get this. I feel for Jane working in that environment, it’s hard not to snap back!
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I think we’ve all been there, unfortunately. My revenge: Put it in writing!
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I’m with you…if I have to spend most of my waking hours someplace, it had better be reasonably pleasant. A bad work environment drags down your whole life.
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Tedious circumstances like this can make work into such a drag
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This Six is based on a job I had – not for long.
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it raises that (equally) difficult problem of ‘post conflict emotional landscape’…. not likely conflict, I tend to find the aftermath even more difficult to contend with
oh, yeah…. good Six!
(lol… good stories are engaging, no?)
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Good insight. The scrap is one thing, but how do we deal with people like that after it’s over?
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Jane “mostly succeeds at keeping her voice neutral”. Good one 🙂 Jane knew not to take the bait lol
Or maybe, she knew not to get caught up in Becca’s “mood”. Bad attitudes love company!
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Anatomy of a Toxic Environment!
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I don’t think I would enjoy working in this office either, if Becca’s attitude is always like this. Great story for the prompt.
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Thanks!
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Am I glad to be out of that environment and having to sort out feuding staff. Never again…well that’s the truth!
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Oh don’t I wish! lol
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