I work in a law firm and our oldest employee is 88 (will be 89 this year). She was hired 9 years ago for a six month scanning project that turned into a full time gig. We all treat her with great respect and gentleness but it’s wearing thin. When she walks by my desk she always has a snide comment. Things like, “I see you’re just sitting there again.” or “I walked by your desk and you weren’t there. We’re you hiding?” I’m always working so it grates after a while. I was showing a summer intern how to create a spreadsheet and she walked by and said, “Are we entertaining?” I’ve taken it in stride but I feel like I’m between a rock and a hard place. If it were any other employee I’d set them straight (in a professional way, of course). But I don’t want to upset her (even though she’s always grouchy) because of her advanced age.
Today she walked up to my desk and asked if I could take the big box of candy down from a closet shelf so she could refill her candy dish. This is normal and I’m happy to help her. But today, I was almost finished with a task that an attorney was waiting for. I told her that I could get it for her in a sec and that I had to get what I was doing done asap. She said okay and then began drumming her fingers on my desk. After about 30 seconds of the drumming I said that she could get the summer intern to get the candy for her if she didn’t want to wait. She said she’d wait and continued drumming. I finished what I was doing and got the box down for her. As she was picking out her candy she said she needed tape. I reminded her where the extra office supplies are kept but said I’d get her some tape since I was near it. As I was walking back out of the supply room, the previously mentioned intern walked by and in a scolding tone she told the girl that I had been looking for her. The intern looked at me with wide eyes and said she’d been working in the filing department. I told her that was absolutely not what I said and that I was never looking for her.
I would NEVER allow that treatment of me and most especially a 15 year old summer intern were it not for this coworker’s advanced age.
There is no point in complaining to management because they all think she hung the moon. When a manager is near she is the sweetest, most soft spoken, gentle lady you’d ever want to meet.
What can I say to her to get her to back off?