More reasons to say "AMF"

"My Japanese is a little rusty, but there was clearly something said about fish drama." - Frylock


A few days ago, Cakes and NRA noticed that some of their fish were in dirty tanks and looked underfed. The leader of Fishworld told them that the person who regularly cleans the tanks was out for the week. Now, heads have rolled in the past if non-Fishworld folk clean tanks and such, so C and N went to Bipolo the Head Cheese to get permission to clean the tanks. (Why someone needs permission to clean a damn fish tank is beyond my comprehension...) BtheHC flew off the handle and accused Cakes of trying to tell the Fishworld manager how to run her show. (WTF?) He got done with that tirade, then went to Fishworld and started another rampage, this time with Fishworld manager (FWM) as his victim.

Now, let's be honest, FWM has, in the past, been a real pain in the butt. FWM is one of those folks who takes a mile if you give them an inch. We have had problems with her, but none that were Earth-shattering. Overall, she's a bit lazy, but does a very good job.

So, Bipolo is yelling and yelling at FWM for damn near an hour about the state of Fishworld. She's not backing down either - she's right in there yelling back. I don't really know exactly what happened, but there was lots of "Are you resigning?" type talk...

Somewhere near what should have been the end of this, FWM pulls a boner and asks Bipolo to sign off on giving her time off to take some classwork. (Background: FWM is employed full time by Bipolo and is attempting to do a research-thesis M.S.) Bipolo blows what little stack is left, and the yelling continues for another half hour. I think she wanted him to be her research advisor and thought she could work on a project off-hours in our lab. Makes sense. But, Bipolo told her she was lazy and there was no way she could do that. (Plus, he already made a big stink about not taking students...) He was really pissed and refused to sign off on her class time hours. He told her that she'd have to take unpaid leave if she wanted to take grad classes this semester.

Then Bipolo told her that ANY time she was not in Fishworld would be counted as unpaid leave. He told her that she needed to inform him or Soduc EVERY time she left the area, NO EXCEPTIONS.

After all this, Cakes and NRA are walking around feeling like assholes, but still believing they did the right thing by telling Bipolo. (At this point, who is to say WHAT the best thing would have been?) Everybody's really gossipy and wanting to find out exactly what happened. Word is that FWM is really, REALLY pissed at Bipolo, and Bipolo at her. Soduc, our always completely paranoid secretary, decides that FWM's access to the main office needs to be revoked because she is "a security risk". What the?? What could she do to the main office? Make some unauthorized copies? Put tacks in the chairs?? Wouldn't you think that if she was gonna do something, she'd fuck up the fish? And besides, if you are THAT worried about an employee, maybe you should think about getting rid of them...

Later that day, DxB runs into Dr. Wernstrom, chair of the department and graduate student advisor. Wernstrom asks DxB what the heck is wrong with Bipolo. Wernstrom says Bipolo called him and told him to kick FWM out of graduate school! What the holy hell? Wernstrom said he told Bipolo that there was no reason to kick her out, she was meeting all the requirements of the department, and her grades were excellent. He said the only way he could remove her from the graduate school was if her grades were not up to par. Bipolo then told him that she was NOT meeting the requirements and blah, blah, blah, department reputation, program quality, blah, blah, blah. (Funny - why should he even care? He's flat out refusing to take any students because he's not interested in "wasting time or funds" on them.) So Wernstrom calmly explained to him that yes, it would be difficult for FWM to work full time and get her thesis research done. He explained that many students try and many students fail. He explained that in these cases they (the faculty) just sit back and see what happens. Most times, these students simply just go away. Wernstrom said Bipolo was pissed at him, but there was really nothing he could do. (Is it just me, or does this sound like some kind of personal problem between Bipolo and FWM?)

Okay, next day... Bipolo has drawn up some kind of contract or agreement or something that he is forcing FWM to sign. (I have no idea what it said.) She didn't want to sign it because she didn't understand it. He got pissed, saying refusal to sign it could have severe consequences, blah, blah, blah. She reiterated that she was not refusing to sign it, she just wanted to understand it, and noted that before she DID sign it, she would have her legal counsel review it!! (Holy crap! Lawyers!!)

She did however, make sure to inform Bipolo her whereabouts during the day:

7:38 am "I'm here!"

8:10 am "I have to use the bathroom."

8:13 am "I'm back!"

10:00 am "I'm taking 10 minutes of my first break."

10:10 am "I'm back!"

etc., etc. (quite hilarious)


For what it's worth, I think this is simply a pissing contest between FWM and Bipolo. I think she wants him to fire her and he knows it, so he's doing his best to make her so miserable that she'll just quit.

It's just more shit as Trani says. Thank the gods that Bipolo is gone this week.


Always,

S