Not really nice

I work with the same art director on all my projects. She calls me "partner." We spend more time with each other than we do with anyone else. I understand how to work with her now, and our synchronicity makes things go more smoothly. I find her presence comforting at big, agency-wide meetings.

But you know what? She isn't very nice.

She can be competitive, and she doesn't really care about people.

I wish this wasn't true and it makes me sad.

Here's what brought it back to me on Monday ...

My original blog post

First meeting of the day found us reliving the staggering news we received on Friday. The agency's relationship with our client is suddenly nowhere near as solid as it's been for decades. We were told outright that there would be changes -- some of us can be expect to be moved to other accounts, some could even be let go ... nothing is immediate, stay tuned.

After the meeting, I went down to the food court for lunch. I had to be alone, to think, to recharge. My table had these flowers. I ruefully thought they were appropriate to the day. I snapped the photo and posted to Facebook Friday, saying: "The flowers on my lunch table. Kinda emblematic of my day."

It got sympathetic clicks and the first comment was from, ironically, my favorite client contact, who wrote, "Aw ... If you ever need to unwilt, call me!"

I mentioned this to my immediate team on Monday for two reasons: 1) Obviously word of our agency/client fracture hasn't reached the rank-and-file in the client's offices and 2) isn't our client contact nice?

My art director completely misunderstood the point. She seemed annoyed that I'm Facebook friends with the client and said haughtily, "Yeah, I saw your flower post but I didn't understand it so I kept scrolling."

Why say that?

I replied, "How could you not understand? We got very bad news on Friday, remember?"

She shrugged.

People's lives are going to change. Some are going to lose their jobs. How does she not understand how upsetting this is? Is she so certain of her promised inheritance from her father that she doesn't care if she loses her job? Is her relationship with her boyfriend so secure that she's sure he'll help her out? Or (as I suspect) does it bother her that I have a relationship with our client contact that she could have, but doesn't?

I want to like her. I want to believe she likes me. But then shit like this happens. I know this sounds childlike, but I hate being reminded that everyone isn't nice.