A Sociopath/Psychopath in the Workplace!

Sounds strange and unusual, doesn't it?  But it happens more often than we think. 

Trust your gut.

If somebody at work is charming and flattering you, and you get an uncomfortable feeling, withdraw from them and only interact on a professional level.  They could be a sociopath testing the waters to see if they can make you into their follower. Sociopaths love to have a follower to back them up and support them as their behavior becomes more and more outrageous and they turn on their other coworkers and their company.

The sociopath that I worked with was in a small company that did not have any specific rules of employee behavior or even a human resources department for that matter.  They just assumed that since their new employees were usually hired after being recommended by a small core group of people that everyone would behave in a reasonable and responsible manner.  Wrong!  The sociopath hid her true nature until she was firmly imbedded, and then her demands and behavior became more and more ridiculous and unreasonable.  She would call me at night, drunk, to complain about 2 male coworkers.  She came to work sometimes an hour, an hour and a half late with a hangover, bitterly complaining that her work was getting singled out.  If I disagreed, I was greeted with stony silence for weeks.  In this small lab, the two of us were mostly doing the wet work and I depended on her to complete her work so that I could then do the next steps.  This made things difficult.

She logged into other employees' computers, including mine to see what personal information she could glean.  She tried to get into my 401K account but fortunately I had changed the password.  She ultimately attempted to blackmail our company before leaving.

I have never been so happy as when this bitter, vindictive woman went out the door the last time!

Warning Signs that you may be working with a Sociopath:

Tries to isolate you from coworkers so that its the two of you versus Everyone Else

Flatters you constantly

Can't accept it and gets hostile if you disagree with anything, may turn into verbal attack

Tries to learn any secrets, then uses them against you later

Manipulative, lies as easily as breathing.  Twists everything around until you doubt yourself

Gets bored easily at work, may stir up trouble and controversy just for fun

Many failings in life but never takes responsibility, it is always somebody else's fault

Holds everyone else to a strict moral code but doesn't include themselves, justifies their (criminal) actions as if they were judge, jury and executioner

May indulge in impulsive risky behavior including drugs and alcohol

Has an abnormally vivid recollection of childhood

No life plan

Oddly childlike, simple in some ways


Well, this is my last blog of 2013.  Everyone have a happy and prosperous (and psycho-free) New Year! 

Kathy Presley

September Already? Oi!

Here is a scrimshaw of a brown bear that I did on a piece of an old recycled piano key.  I will be selling this and other pieces of scrimshaw art at the Trackrock Hammer In at Trackrock Campground up in Blairsville the weekend of September 28th.

I am very grateful to the Georgia Knifemakers Guild for inviting me and giving me advice and tips on scrimshaw technique!  I love scrimshaw  because it is so similar to drawing with pen and ink. 

Kathy

Wow Over a Year...

I have gone over a year without blogging. I blame Facebook! Anyway, still have lacy dogs, still gardening, beekeeping, and hunting. I have started doing scrimshaw and pyrography. Stay tuned for tutorials.

Dogs and geese and bees and roosters, oh my!

As usual, I am behind on everything but hoping to catch up. I am in the middle of planting 20-something yellow squash seedlings, still watering my heirloom tomato seedlings in the greenhouse and keeping an eye on the bees. So far I have found 3 queen cells where they were preparing to swarm, and I have split them off into new hives. I pulled off about 25-30 pounds of lovely light spring honey and bottled it, should have more soon. It is a blend of nectars from my fruit trees: apple, pear, plum, peach and nectarine. May also have some maple and black locust nectar in it.

This weekend Alex and Elvis' eggs hatched and we now have 10 baby geese. One baby spent the night under the heat lamp in the bath tub but now they are all together and happy.

A friend gave us 2 Serama roosters, so cute!
well gotta run to work! Later!

Sheds and Hogs and Bees and Border Collies

This was an interesting week! Thursday I went to Hank the herding instructor and told him I really wanted to focus on getting Pearl to work further from the stock. If and when we ever work cattle, this could save her from getting killed or injured. The cattle over at the training place are wild as bucks and have a flight distance of about 100 yards, allowing no dog to get close. But if harassed enough, they have banded together and stomped dogs to death.

Anyway the key to driving the dog out is to find its eye or balance point and apply pressure at that point by stepping into the dog or gesturing with the stock stick, or both. I was having trouble finding it with Pearl so Hank let me work Louise, a very sensitive border collie. As she circled, I could see her darting her eye at me to see what I was doing. When I made the usual gesture that I do with Pearl, she actually flinched and got out. Louise prefers a smoother, less threatening gesture with the stick. She got out and made a nice wide circle around the sheep. I was able to make Louise lay down with body gesture alone, and then turn her in the other direction. Lots of fun!

Then Hank let me work Kitty. He gave a little private smirk as he handed me Kitty's leash. Kittie is an itty bitty border collie, only 28 pounds with a sweet little face and upright ears like a fox. I thought, "oh good another sweet little girl like Louise!" HA! I could not make Kitty do anything. She ran around and around the sheep and refused to get out or stop no matter how threatening I became. I tried cutting her off or blocking her but she could outrun me. I could not make her stop. After 10 minutes with Kitty I felt like I had played an entire soccer game. Hank stepped in and she worked just fine with him.

And then back to Pearl. She is more or less ignoring my gestures to get out and doesn't understand the point of it all. Will have to figure out another solution.

The next day I was ready for some fun with Pearl, and she has really been turning on to hunting rabbits and squirrels in the back yard. I decided to take her to Clybel WMA, 45 minutes away. Well..... it is 45 minutes away when you are leaving home at 5 AM! We got caught in traffic with everyone heading home so we got there later than I would have liked. We parked at the firebreak by the entrance to the deer lease that I used to hunt, and walked down the firebreak. I encouraged Pearl by whispering "squirrel! squirrel!" and she trotted off into the woods...on a fresh deer trail by the looks of the disturbed leaves. She made a bee line to a freshly shed antler, 3 points with no brow tines. Then she took off but I was able to call her back. We walked further and I found a nice place to bowhunt so marked it on GPS for future hunting. We walked some more and came to a damp area with a large puddle. Something had rooted around it, an armadillo I think. Pearl flushed a woodcock or timberdoodle not 10 feet from me! It looked like it only flew a short distance before landing, but I was unable to spot it.

All this time the wind was gusting and we saw no squirrels on the ground or moving in trees. I sat down to spend some time looking closely with the binoculars and Pearl snuggled up against me. No squirrels, so we continued down to the creek. Along the creek it appeared that a drunk had been operating a rototiller! I had heard of hogs at Clybel but they were supposed to be on the other end of the WMA. Sure enough, there was a tree with the bark rubbed off on one side going from the ground to about knee high. And dried mud on it. Hogs. And then another tree, and another. By this time the sun was going down, and I was not so keen to have my inexperienced dog take off after a hog so we started heading back to the truck. We went over a hill and down the other side, when we heard the sound of something heavy walking around where we had just been. An elephant by the sounds of it. Pearl bristled and then took off like a rocket after it. I heard the sound of her chasing something and suddenly over the top of the hill here came a huge armadillo with Pearl hot behind him, trying to figure out how to grab him. He zipped down a hole. We walked another 20 yards and Pearl jumped another one. This one ran down a hole at the base of a tree and Pearl stuck her head in and bayed him. LOL!

Saturday was warm, so I opened up my backyard hives. All the bees have survived so far, even my 2 nuke hives! I fed them all artificial pollen patties. Today I will go check on my bees at other places. Hopefully we will have a good spring with just the right amount of rain.

Oh: Alex the goose has laid her first egg of the year in the greenhouse! I guess I will be stepping over a pissy hissing goose when I water seedlings for the 3rd year in a row...but that's OK!

New Art

I watched a show on PBS, Nature. This episode was about the wolverine. These large weasels are one of the least known mammals in the northern hemisphere. They have the reputation of being solitary and ferocious, but actually are loving and tolerant of their mates and kits. One male will breed with several females, and then help raise all the kits of each family. They will even make the rounds to each group, gather up the growing kits and take the whole bunch on an adventure, teaching them how to be wolverines. Gives me new faith in the power of fatherhood!

This little painting is currently being listed on eBay.

The Rut is on in Gwinnett County

I went out in the backyard along the woods and overnight a buck had made three scrapes. He is going to have a hard time finding a girlfriend. The only one I know of in this area is a huge old doe. She comes and eats out of the bird feeder. There was a younger doe and her yearling daughter but both were killed in the same accident, struck by a car.

I have seen several dead does on the side of the road. Part of deer courtship is for the doe to run away from the bucks, testing them to see how long and how fast they can follow. Eventually they will stop and stand for the most worthy buck. Unfortunately in this patchwork of woods, fields and suburbs they run out into the road and that is the end of them. And the end of many cars and some people too.

I am glad we don't have moose!