Muna

She was and still is my colleague as far as i can tell.

I really don’t know what i did to deserve her intense contempt, anger and hatred channeled at me

we don’t talk

we don’t socialize

we never did

except when she was new to the location i was,

we exchanged those pleasantries that come with newness,

the -good mornings

the- hi

the you know small talk chatter,

i even once complimented her about her name,

“you have a nice name, sounds cute and short”, i said.

Until we realized something about her

by we i mean the whole lot of us,

she was a show off

like the kind who loves to be the best,

the one and only,

to be always recognized,

given validation,

“seen” to be working hard,

“seen” to be keen and diligent in her work,

just seen all over.

and she did indeed ensure that she was seen.

The funny thing is, she was actually assigned the most public facing role, at least for colleagues, not clients

and it meant a lot for her

i guess to be known among them as the most efficient worker,

a hardworker,

a lady who cared for and valued her work,

a lady who was always working,

and ensuring no lapse in her duties,

taking herself and duties seriously,

dedicated, friendly, sociable and

hell bent on ensuring anyone who mattered saw her, recognized her, took note, praised her and sang her name amongst themselves as the best thing to have ever happened since she stepped foot on that premise.

You know that person who works too hard going beyond the norm never minding whose toes are stepped on , all to garner some fame if not all?

She really yearned for that recognition, and went out of her way to ensure it belonged to her.

She always ensured when staff clocked in, she was among them just chatting getting to know who was who,

identifying whose toes to lick and boots to wipe

she mingled among them and made herself look like she was at that particular place coinciding perfectly with their coming in,

so she’d be observing and pretending to be really hard at work, in the vicinity of the staff entrance for the timed entrance or exit of staff.

“What was she doing?” you might ask

cleaning of course.

There was a time we asked her if in her previous location she was working like that, in that crazed frantic, with too much enforced energy channeled towards her focused points

or she’s doing all these present pretenses for a show, and we weren’t wrong because her little annoying performances dwindled and faded naturally.

And the area she was so avidly, jealously protecting us from trespassing became a sorry state most of the time and even filthy while she was present,

whatever or wherever she was high on wore off and a real concrete hitting slab slam stump happened.

She was so audacious as to be just placing her mop in front of the incoming mass of people just to look that she was you know, really cleaning this area, this very minute, but in essence she was just dementedly weird.

So did she expect praise?
did she expect the clocking in shift to just halt outside?

or sidestep her as she maneuvered her mop vigorously on all sides where sidestepping should have occurred,

she just monopolized the walkways, hallways and corridors.

It verged on bullying and daring you to step on the silly mop or just stand still and wait or say “excuse me maam may i pass”.

like seeking permission like a little kid in school.

Ok, why did she choose that exact moment when the staff were emerging through the entrance to clean that area?

why couldn’t she wait for them to pass and then reasonably clean after them?

what sense does it make to clean while a group of people are emerging from the opposite direction and purposefully position yourself in front of them?

what did she really expect?

It beats logic and any sane explanations to what her true intentions were.

It was crude, rude and unnecessary.

Suffice to say, many staff started to complain to her supervisor and told her to her face that she dint need to prove anything nor clean their legs or shoes for them,

many became rude to her,

she still carried on, unfazed and fanatically high on her craziness,

until she slowly stopped her witchcraft

what was that?

not only will she follow you around with her mop, but also into the ladies changing area as they all had to change into uniforms, freshen up, use the bathroom, touch up make up, blow dry or straighten hair, lock bags in lockers.

She entered after us and went to work while you were standing there in your undergarments, what exactly warranted a cleaning wasn’t visible but she did it anyways, a clean floor, mop on your socks or bare feet, mop brushing past your shoes, going, “excuse me, good morning, excuse me”.

i think she was sick in a way

you have to give it to her

the work was tiring, and showing off full time isn’t easy,

it has no lag time as all the time you need to be on the move, doing something to justify your initial momentum, or the label you curated for yourself.

Sometimes she decided in the evening at 10pm to do a wash out of the changing room lockers, that meant pouring soapy water on the floor, brushing and generally scrubbing the tiles, while we were changing!

Picture this, you are on your bare feet or socks, she uncaringly splashes soapy water around starts vehemently scrubbing the tiles like her life depends on it with zesty, angered energy, that meant splashes will reach you, and you’ll be splashed wet, as she vigorously scrubbed the floor with energy that i don’t know from which high.

Tell me you won’t talk angrily, shout, exchange words, have a fight, consider her an enemy of the people, especially when the scrubbing and splashing is aimed at where you are while others are spared.

she did that you know?

intentionally starting or focusing the scrub splashing where i was.

was this to aggravate me?annoy me?draw me out into a fight?

while she spared the brunt of the activity from her fellow country people, who shared the same linguistic language as her.

She’d speak in this loud shrieking tone, “my friend! place the hanger on it’s hold!” as most staff left their hangers hanging on their lockers or threw them on the floor or laid them anywhere, some did that to spite her,

who’d take orders from being screamed at, in aloud screech,”my friend! don’t leave your hanger there, place it where it’s supposed to be!”

She shouted about a tissue not placed in the bin

she shouted about water on the floor, sink marble countertop, some little splashes after washing hands that splashed outside the basin, or drips and spots on the floor, as it so happens when one reaches out for tissue after hurriedly washing hands.

She shouted and went on and on about the bathroom mess to anyone who was within earshot around and inside the bathroom lockers,

she placed caution signs on pathways blocking all sensible walkways and if you bypassed them, she will be on the other side shouting, “hey, why are you stepping on the floor! don’t you see am cleaning? you’re making the floor dirty! It’s wet and you can see am cleaning! don’t you have eyes?”

excuse me,

where do you expect us to relieve ourselves?

or use the wash basin, except here?

she was unreasonable, bossy and obnoxious

not to say toxic to some of us.

She had her favorites though,

the ones who were meek enough to follow her orders and threats of being reported to her supervisor,

that included some and most of those from her race, who spoke her mother tongue, and those she considered deserved a kind of reverence and worshipped treatment or a kind of respect accorded to them due to their presumed status or dressing and positions held in various departments.

Those of course who worked in offices as accountants, engineering, IT, managers, coordinators, supervisors, assistant managers, front office staff who looked like dirt never touches them, and any other department as long as staff were nicely suited or had some title and reverence accorded to them as she recognized and got to know who was who or guessed via the dressing, and with time the staff’s position came to light anyways.

The same kindness and human decency wasn’t extended to casuals, subordinate workers, housekeepers (though she related well to some that she accorded preferential treatment), attendants, chefs who were at a lower rank than the head chefs or senior chefs, easily identifiable by their uniforms.

It was segregation and discrimination as per her whims.

Now why you’d wonder was she allowed to be viciously crude and rude like this?

because her supervisor was her fellow country man and they shared the same language and mostly were very close

i don’t know what things she whispered in his ear that he never reprimanded her actions,

but came as a no surprise that he converted to be one of her hordes who made up the squad bent on hating me,

spreading hate,

hate speech directed towards me,

spoke to me anyhow mostly at the top of their voices,

looked at me contemptuously,

never gave way while i was passing by them on the hallway,

ensured my time around their presence and the area they were given to govern was as uncomfortable as possible,

ensuring i left fast or never set foot around their little stronghold.

You can imagine they spoke the same mother tongue, decided unanimously that i was just an unworthy person and should never be accorded any respect whatsoever,

they ganged up with their other fellow country people to ensure i never took tea in peace in the cafeteria but was driven out,

rebuked like a cat that dragged in something from the garbage.

She was also unfortunately cleaning the same cafeteria.

Now in the mornings or before the start of duty we usually went for a bite of bread or tea,

it wasn’t normal operating hours but we went anyways as some colleagues did,

there she and her supervisor connived to hide bread, coffee, tea, sugar, lock the door, hide the paper cups, switch off the light

some days we were lucky to gain access,

by we, i mean others not from her close cronies and who spoke her language that gained easy access or direct staff that she dare not say anything about,

we, me and her made up the casual population.

Other days it was just a U-turn we made,

if we ever gained access we were rushed, she came over with her awful dirty mop in between in front and on top of your shoes in the name of cleaning,

all the while talking loudly in that high pitch manic crazed way, shouting in her language, but i could see the eyes turned towards me and feel the hatred seeping from her words aimed at me.

It was mostly about me, i never talked back furthermore i dint understand what she was on about but i knew she was mudslinging on my direction.

All i did was take tea or a bite like everyone, what was wrong about that?

what did i do to deserve so much hatred and loud shouting aimed at me?

the hatred, vehemence, energy and strength with which she was yelling you’d think something off about me,

needless to say, most of her consorts and cohorts were brainwashed and listening to her going on and on breathlessly about me, pointing and looking at me,

her enthusiasm and convincing talking points would influence your perspective and make you believe am the devil, since those i never thought could be influenced, those i never had any interaction with were easily swayed with minimum effort it seemed from her part.

More converted and began showing me open hatred, contempt and speaking to me anyhow and about me.

I’d just be over here minding my business when i hear a remark and all eyes turn on me, everyone freezes and just stares at me, while the instigator of the talk kept going on and on his gaze at me and laughter followed, the tone’s intonation suggestive of a jab and an ongoing derogatory remark, the tone rising sharply and accusingly, the brunt of it aimed at me,

when you walk by people and they utter nonsense and laugh only they understand what they said, you catch on to the negative energy aimed at you and feel the odd vibes.

Seated at the cafeteria, she’d purposefully make a cleaning pass with her mop just where am seated, and expect me to stand and find another place to sit or move so she can clean, not that this is the first time for her to do it,

as other times we just sat and she cleaned around us, anyways it isn’t that there was dirt to be fished at my feet, it was just a way to annoy me, goad me into action, or just make me feel she has the say in this place as she was let loose to run amok with a nod of approval from those who were supposed to reign her in.

As you can imagine this is adult bullying and i even decided for my own peace to stop going to the cafeteria for that tea break, to avoid those eviscerating unsettling jabs aimed at me for their joy and entertainment, but that dint stop them from finding somewhere to corner me and make me the center of their mockery.