I'm not sorry

I think I hate her.

Christine is the woman my agency brought in, on a free lance basis, to help with my projects until The New Girl gets up to speed. With luck, Christine will be gone around the Fourth of July.

She worked at my agency for 5 years, where she was a (la-de-dah) Vice President. Eight years ago she was let go when her client left us for another agency. Now she's back, as a contractor in a far more junior position. Only she's not acting junior. She's all bossy pants.

"You need to do this …"
"You need to give me that …"

You need to bite my fat ass, Granny. You're not a VP anymore, you're a free lance account exec sitting out in the open, just like the rest of us.

She's tight with my boss and consults him about everything first. Then she asks me what I think we should do (these are my projects, after all) as though she hadn't already spoken to my boss.  She sets herself up as the savior of us benighted savages when she talks to upper management, even though I have explained to her time and again that she's simply wrong about her suppositions. I think she's wangling for a full time position again. Oh, good. Then I can work with someone on a daily basis who alternately doesn't give me what I need and tries to make me look like a failure.

So I went to her boss, The New Girl. TNG likes me because I am, indeed, good at this job, despite what Christine seems to think. I told The New Girl that if I was her, I'd get Christine out of here as soon as possible. That Christine seems to have an agenda that is not about the work at hand, and if she is trying to make me look bad to upper management -- and I'm not even in the way of her possible plans for global domination -- it's more than just possible she's running The New Girl into the ground, too.

Bottom line, Christine: You want to exploit your relationship with my boss? Then I'll exploit mine with yours.

I suppose I should feel bad about being manipulative, but I don't. I want this bitch gone. I have a lot of work to do these days, and I'm enjoying it, and I'm not going to let her get in my way.

Sometimes I worry that I may have backed the wrong horse -- that they may decide to keep Christine and let TNG go. It seems unlikely, though. Christine really does look every minute of her 60 years and this is an industry that idolizes youth. And another new, young (cheap) account exec (Ellen) is starting on May 15th and I don't know how much free lance money we've got in the budget.

So I think I'm halfway through Christine's siege. Let's hope her reign of terror is free of bloodshed.