I hate people

There is a version of A Christmas Carol that is one of my favorites. It is a musical called Scrooge and stars Albert Finney back before he had the Sir in front of his name. It has a song in there sung by Scrooge cleverly entitled "I hate people" and it is one of my favorite songs. When, I get really mad and frustrated with people, I will sing it in my mind and it usually calms me down a bit because I love the movie.

Not Wednesday. I was singing it alright, but I felt like I was meaning it. Stole all my Christmas sweetness right away from me. I'm just so fed up with self-important people. Working as a contractor, I have no job security, so I have to be very PC and not rock the boat too much so I don't kill my chances of getting repeat work with people.

Twice in less than a week, self-important people who felt like I didn't respect them enough have called two different editors I'm working for and complained about me. It would be laughable if it wasn't hitting my pocketbook because I'm never really sure if the editor is going to pay me my full amount for my work. In both cases, these are people who - IMHO - would be much farther in their careers if they were as good and important as they think they are. As it is, they aren't. One is junior junior exec at her firm and the other is a big fish on a little pond that he apparently wants to think is an ocean. Regardless, the kicker for the big fish was this: he actually complained that I didn't give his article enough of my attention because I was "spending too much time with my children." I swear to God, that was his complaint. It all came because two different times he wanted to have a phone conference, I had plans with my children. He got his story done the way he asked for it and by deadline. Of course, he told the editor that I didn't do anything with the information he gave me but cut and paste. Ok, I'd like to see that jackass cut and paste as well as I did, but that is neither here nor there. I didn't write sales copy for the guy, but gave his program a very informative, newsy feel to his article because I feel that is more enticing to a reader than feeling like they're being sold something. So many of these people want that sales pitch in their articles and I think it is awful. I won't read articles that are selling me something. Whatever, just don't say I didn't meet my obligations when I did it exactly as you asked.

But, if someone is going to complain about me, go right ahead and bitch that I spent too much time with my kids. I'm ok with that.